Hand of the day #211
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff This column aims to amuse, as well as to educa...
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
In today’s deal from the Reykjavik WBT event, Jacek Pszczola (Pepsi) re-opened with a take-out double of two spades as East.
Opening Lead: ♥5
With the balance of power and a certain trump trick, Krzysztof Buras converted it for penalty and led a heart to Pepsi’s king. Back came ace and another trump to prevent a diamond ruff in dummy. Declarer took the spade king and wisely played off king, ace, and another diamond to East’s queen. Pepsi won and forced the South hand with a heart. After ruffing, how should declarer continue?
The original declarer laid down the spade queen, getting the expected bad news, then ran his diamonds. Had Buras ruffed either of the diamonds, dummy’s club king would have scored, West having only one more heart. However, the Polish champion defended accurately by discarding clubs on the fourth and fifth diamonds. He could then win the club ace, draw declarer’s trump, and cash a heart to set the doubled partscore.
Declarer could have succeeded there, by playing off his diamonds before taking the spade queen. West must discard as before, but now declarer remains with a major tenace in trumps and West is eventually endplayed to let South score both the spade queen and spade 10.
Is this approach double-dummy (meaning you would only find it with sight of all four hands)? I think not: the 4-2 spade break is surely guaranteed from the auction, and the club ace rates to be right since East has produced 13 HCP already.
Bid with the Aces
Answer: Overcall 3♠
There is a high premium on bidding four spades over four hearts, so I would stretch to overcall three spades here, resolving a subsequent guess. Even if I were playing four diamonds as diamonds and spades, I do not have the values for it. If doubled loudly for penalties, would I consider running to four diamonds? I might consider it…but only so I could tell partner “Sorry I did think about it.”