The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff

Opening Lead: ♥Q

When South played four spades on the lead of the heart queen to the ace and a heart return, he won, cashed the spade ace and king, then played a club. West took the ace, cashed the spade queen, and exited with a club. When East turned up with six hearts, declarer played West for the diamond length and went one down.

Let’s revisit declarer’s play. At trick three it looks far better to lead the club jack. If West ducks, you win and take the top spades, East pitching a heart, planning to ruff a heart and then play a club. If West captures the club jack at trick three and exits with a club, you win and take the top spades, then ruff a heart and exit with a spade.

Either way, West will be on lead and has only minor-suit cards left. He should know that a club would give a ruff and discard, but since declarer has a 4-4 diamond fit, a ruff and discard will do him no good.

So West exits with a club, and declarer needs to guess diamonds himself. But now he has a better count of the East-West hands. While East might have started with 1-6-1-5 shape, his heart discards combined with his play of the club nine and 10 on the second and third round of the suit make it more likely that he had three clubs and thus began life with 1-6-3-3 pattern. If so, declarer should play East for the diamond queen.

Bid with the aces

This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.

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