The Aces on Bridge: Wednesday, 25 February 2026

The Aces on Bridge: Wednesday, 25 February 2026

Barry Rigal
Author

Choose a language

Français Français
Deutsch Deutsch
Español Español
Italiano Italiano
Português Português
Nederlands Nederlands
Русский Русский
中文 中文
Türkçe Türkçe
Dansk Dansk
Svenska Svenska
Norsk Norsk
हिन्दी हिन्दी

Mysteries abound where most we seek for answers.

Ray Bradbury

Can you visualize a hand where you start by raising to the two-level, only to compete to the five-level one round later without any encouragement? That is what Michael Kamil did for the Wolfson team in the finals of the 2025 USA1 Senior Trials, with this North hand, and it worked very well. Mind you, it might not have succeeded as well as it did.
Five hearts was doubled, of course. Declarer Jeff Meckstroth ruffed the diamond lead and then played a trump from dummy, East correctly inserting the jack to keep control. Meckstroth won with the king but could not afford to play a second trump lest the defenders draw trumps and cash a diamond, so he started cashing clubs. East ruffed the second round, and now the contract could not be beaten. East could not continue diamonds safely from his side, so Meckstroth won the spade return and gave up a trump. A heart remained on the table to handle a diamond force.
It is hard to see, perhaps, but East should discard on the second club, keeping his top trumps. If declarer continues clubs, West can ruff with his small trump and continue diamonds for two down. South would have to give up and revert to trumps to escape for minus 200.
Credit to West, Doug Doub, for finding the only lead to trouble declarer, but at least he suffered a loss of just 3 international match points when North-South played in the unbeatable five clubs doubled next door. Maybe North should have tried that en route to five hearts if he was going to bid.

Barry Rigal

Barry Rigal is an English-born bridge player, author, commentator, and journalist who has won major national titles in both the UK and the United States and served as a VuGraph commentator for decades at European and World championships. He has written and edited numerous bridge books and articles and has been President of the International Bridge Press Association, contributing widely to the game’s literature and education.

A109
10742
AQ8654
KJ762
85
J943
103
N
W
E
S
Q843
AQJ
AQ762
9
5
K963
K1085
KJ72
W
N
E
S
1
X
1
1
2
4
Pass
Pass
5
X
Pass
Pass
Pass

Opening Lead: Diamond four

Responses

Join the community

To like this content and save your preferences, you need to be a member. It's free and takes 30 seconds!

Publish

Directory

Need help?


Follow us!