Hand of the day #743
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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
South’s two-spade overcall was aggressive, but a reasonable shot in a pair game. East would have doubled back in for take-out if two spades was passed around to him, but decided not to act again over three spades.
Opening Lead: ♥K
West kicked off with the heart king, overtaken by East for a heart return to the queen, followed by the heart 10. Declarer chose to ruff with the spade 10, East overruffing. With the club suit threatening discards, East switched accurately to diamonds, setting up a diamond trick while West remained with the club ace. One down.
Declarer could have done better there. Dummy’s diamond nine was likely to be a loser anyway. He should have discarded it on the third heart, avoiding the overruff. This loser-on-loser play would in effect condense declarer’s spade and diamond losers into one. He would win the diamond shift, cross to the spade ace, ruff a diamond and return to the spade king. Thus, declarer would be sure to escape for one down when spades were foul. To play off the spade ace-king without ruffing a diamond first could be costly if the defender with the club ace had the third trump.
On the layout, declarer of course makes the contract on this line.
Lead with the Aces
Answer: 4♦
Lead the diamond four. The opponents know you have spades but still settled in three no-trump. Partner did not raise spades either, so try the sneak attack of a diamond, leading low to unblock them if partner has ace-doubleton, say.