Hand of the day #69
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff A rubber bridge player at the Dyspeptics Club ...
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
The best play that I encountered in the Mixed Pairs found me on the receiving end. I thought Michael Yuen and Angela Fenton did very well here.
Opening Lead: ♦Q
My 1♠ bid perhaps deserved a fate worse than it got. But given that the contract of 3♣ would have produced an easy 150 for East-West, the defenders needed the third undertrick to get back to par.
Against 3♠, West led the ♦Q, ducked all around, and led another diamond to East’s king. Yuen made a very thoughtful shift to the ♥8, covered by the jack and queen. (Shifting to the ♥10 would not have made West’s life easy.)
Now the ♥A was led, East playing the nine. Then Fenton played a ♣K, and East continued with the ♦A and a fourth diamond. Declarer ruffed high as Fenton pitched both her hearts. Now, as declarer, I had to guess spades at once, with no re-entry to my hand. Not surprisingly, I led low to dummy’s ♠8, since the trumps were known to be 3-1. This resulted in down 150 — mission accomplished for the defenders.
Lead with the Aces
Answer: Lead a spade
The question is whether to lead a spade or a diamond. Normally, you would opt for the fourth suit, or unbid suit. However, North’s failure to double 3♦ makes me think you might do better to lead a spade, although I agree that it is close.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
