FROM ANDREWS MCMEEL UNIVERSAL
THE ACES ON BRIDGE by Barry Rigal
FOR RELEASE: SATURDAY, February 22, 2025

"Whoever intends to have the right, if but his tongue be clever,  Will have it, certainly."  -- Johann von Goethe

.....................
	For the teams that do not qualify for the knockout stages of the Gold Coast teams in Brisbane Australia, there is a side event to play in. On the very final deal of the 2024 Friday Butler Swiss, Alan Watson and Rick Roeder went out with a bang.
	Watson opened one club as South and jumped to three no-trump over the one-heart response. Roeder gave him a sixth. Yes, East should have doubled for a heart lead, but then there would have been no story. Instead, Watson received the lead of the spade nine and ran dummy's four spade tricks, followed by six club tricks, gleaning the information along the way that the heart finesse would probably lose. As the last club hit the green baize, West, North and East were all down to doubletons in each red suit.
	This type of squeeze is known as a winkle, and the correct defense -- often missed at the table, this time being no exception -- is for West to bare his diamond king and keep his hearts. When he does this, declarer can discard a diamond or a heart from dummy. Whatever declarer chooses, East discards from the same suit as dummy, and the defense will prevail.
	Instead, West decided to keep his diamond king guarded and threw a heart, so dummy threw a diamond. If East now bared his heart king, declarer would drop it, so East pitched the diamond ace to avoid being thrown in. Watson crossed to the heart ace and exited in diamonds, forcing West to give him trick 13 in his hand.





	NORTH	02-22-A
SPADES K Q J 7
HEARTS A Q 9 3
DIAMONDS Q 10 6 2
CLUBS 5

WEST		EAST
SPADES 9 8 6		SPADES 10 3 2
HEARTS J 8 7		HEARTS K 10 6 5 2
DIAMONDS K 8 3		DIAMONDS A 7 4
CLUBS 10 7 4 3		CLUBS 9 8

	SOUTH
SPADES A 5 4
HEARTS 4
DIAMONDS J 9 5
CLUBS A K Q J 6 2

Vulnerable: East-West
Dealer: South

The bidding:
South	West	North	East
1 CLUBS	Pass	1 HEARTS	Pass
3 NT	Pass	6 NT	All pass

Opening Lead: Spade nine





BID WITH THE ACES
02-22-B

South holds:

SPADES 10 3 2
HEARTS K 10 6 5 2
DIAMONDS A 7 4
CLUBS 9 8

South	West	North	East
			1 DIAMONDS
?

ANSWER: I would pass when vulnerable. Neither the suit quality nor the hand strength justifies an overcall, especially one with no space-consuming value. However, I would dip my toe in with one heart if non-vulnerable, only because I would like a heart lead against a spade or no-trump contract by West. I would consider my hand just about worth the overcall at any vulnerability if the heart two were the jack.

	(If you would like to contact Barry Rigal, email him at barryrigal@hotmail.com.)
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	(EDITORS: For editorial questions, contact Andrews McMeel Universal Editorial -uueditorial@amuniversal.com, Attn. Ryan Rice.)
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