Hand of the day #63
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff Twenty-four teams were invited to play in the ...
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Looking at all four hands, this might seem like a straightforward three no-trump contract in a teams game. Well, when two expert declarers tackled the deal in a Vanderbilt Knockout match between the Rodrigues and Tulin teams in Louisville, three no-trump went down at both tables. How did this happen?
Opening Lead: ♦6
West might have considered a heart lead, having no side-entry to the diamonds, but both players plumped for a diamond, declarer playing small from dummy. At the first table, Joao Paulo Campos inserted the diamond nine, catering for such as queen-third or queen-jack-fourth in the South hand. Guy Mendes de Leon won the diamond jack and saw only eight top tricks. A losing finesse in either black suit might be fatal, so rather than guessing which suit to attack, he played back a diamond. East won and switched to hearts, declarer winning then playing another diamond. He hoped to cut the defensive communications on a 5-3 diamond split, forcing West to run his suit. That could tighten the end position for a squeeze against East, or at least give declarer a better idea of which black-suit finesse to take in the endgame. Alas, Adriano Rodrigues ran his diamonds for one down.
An alternative approach might be to cash two top clubs then, if the queen does not drop, fall back on a second-round spade finesse, but one can understand declarer’s chosen line.
In the other room, Gary Cohler chose to win the first diamond with the ace and return the nine. Stefano Tommasini pursued the same line of conceding a diamond, but he did so by leading the diamond jack out of the wrong hand at trick three! Billy Cohen, West, was more than happy to accept that lead.
It might seem as though declarer had no more to go on here than at the other table, but that is not so. If East held ace-nine-small of diamonds, there is no doubt he would make the technical play of inserting the diamond nine at trick one. Whereas playing ace and another might gain by unblocking the suit when East had ace-nine doubleton, there is no such upside when he has ace-nine-small. Declarer should have known diamonds were 6-2 and simply finessed spades into the safe East hand.
Bid with the Aces
Answer: Pass
Partner has passed, so a balanced 18-19 is not enough for game. To volunteer two no-trump would be to place your head on the chopping block, and you do not have the right shape for a take-out double. This hand is going nowhere unless partner can back in over two hearts, so pass smoothly.
once again not totally agree! if the partner pass it means that he has not more than 5 points but for this hand 3 can be enough to play 2nt so why not risking bidding it? Bidding as you suggest leave the opportunity to the opps to play 2H with less than your points. Furthermore if you pass yoour partner will never arise the bidding: he just know that you have at least 12 points...