Hand of the day #242
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff The old-fashioned textbooks tell you to lead k...
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
In the following deal from the Cavendish Teams, Gunnar Hallberg and his partner, Brian Glubok, produced a sparkling defensive coup.
Opening Lead: ♣2
The contract of four hearts is not a thing of beauty. Off three aces with a delicate trump holding, declarer’s cards seem to lie so well that only an initial diamond lead beats the hand by getting a ruff for East.
That is not quite so. Consider the effect of the lead of the club two (fourth-highest), which was found by Hallberg. Declarer won in hand to play on spades. Glubok took his ace and played a second club — nice, but by no means obvious, defense. Declarer won and played a diamond, and West also did well when he hopped up with the ace (drawing the inference that declarer had the diamond queen or he would have unblocked the clubs before playing the spade). Had West not taken his ace, declarer would have cashed the black queens to discard both of his remaining diamonds. Hallberg now played a third club. Declarer won in dummy and ran the heart 10, covered by the jack and queen.
At this point declarer had to read the precise heart and club positions and exit with a low heart to have any chance to make his contract. When he made the more natural play of the heart king, Glubok won and led a fourth club, promoting the heart eight to the setting trick.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 2♠
Whether the response is forcing to game or not, I like the economical rebid of two spades here. Though your diamonds are good enough to bid, that call suggests extras in high cards or shape. You can still find the fit later, while the minimum action gives partner room to describe his hand. The suit rebid doesn’t promise six; it is the default action on a hand unsuitable for bidding no-trump.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
