Hand of the day #189
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff Every so often a play comes up that you see on...
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
How should you plan the play in five spades? If trumps are no worse than 3-1, your contract will be easy. You just draw trump, ending on the table, and run the diamond 10. You will lose at most one club and one diamond.
Opening Lead: ♥A
The situation becomes trickier if trumps split 4-0. After you ruff the heart ace and play a trump to the queen, you may lose control if West has a guarded diamond queen since you have to surrender early tricks in both clubs and diamonds. The defenders will force you each time they gain the lead by returning a heart. You will then end up with fewer trumps than East and finish a trick short. Is there anything better?
East appears to have some values for bidding on to the five-level, so play him for the club ace. Cross to the spade queen at trick two to find the bad news, and at trick three play a low club toward your hand. If East plays low, your king wins the trick. You can now draw trumps and give up a diamond trick. You make six trumps, four diamonds and a club.
What happens if East plays the club ace and forces you with another heart? After you ruff, cash the club king and cross to dummy with the trump jack to play dummy’s two club winners, throwing low diamonds from hand. Then, after drawing trumps, you cash the ace and king of diamonds for the 10th and 11th tricks.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 2♣
This is a takeout double, and you have no reason to assume that partner does not have four clubs and a decent hand. With the choice of playing in either minor, it looks right to play in clubs so that you can take ruffs in North and still be able to draw trumps easily. So bid two clubs, perhaps with the idea of competing further if the opponents bid to two of a major.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.