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
Place yourself in the East chair for this deal, continuing our theme of hiding the layout of the led suit from declarer.
Opening Lead: ♠4
Partner leads the fourth-highest spade four against three no-trump. Plan the defense while declarer considers his play before contributing a card from dummy.
A preliminary count of the points reveals partner has 0-2 and his lead suggests at most a five-card spade suit, probably headed by the queen. In terms of tricks, you can see three clubs, a heart and four diamonds for declarer, once your diamond king is knocked out. He is sure to make the spade king as well. Clearly, your only chance is to establish and run the spades.
If you were to take the spade ace and return the jack, declarer would play small from hand to cut the link to partner’s hand on a 5-3 split. You must disguise the position by inserting the jack at the first trick. How can declarer hold up his king now? For all he knows, partner holds the spade ace-queen, in which case his only legitimate chance for the contract is to win the first spade and either find the diamond king onside or spades originally 4-4.
When declarer takes the spade king and finesses diamonds, you pounce with the diamond king, cash the spade ace and play another spade to partner for one down.
This is a play you probably would not make if declarer’s hand was slightly less well defined, maybe as 14-17 points, in which case partner could have started life with the spade K-10.
Bid with the Aces
Answer: 3♥
You probably belong in three no-trump, but there is no rush to bid it. If you are wide open in spades, it is easy to see five clubs making while the no-trump game goes down. Bid three hearts to show a heart stopper. If partner bids three no-trump, great. Over three spades, implicitly denying a spade stopper, I’d bid three no-trump with three small spades, but here would bid five clubs.
Very interesting and yea it's correct three hearts!!! Before to read the answer I thought that 3nt was correct even risking that partner hasn't spades. However if he bid 3 clubs he should have at least 16 points so it's quite unlikely that he hasn't a ston in spades... after reading the answer I confirm that it's better how suggested three hearts!