Hand of the day #215
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff If your bridge is confined to the rubber bridg...
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
In a Norwegian Team Championship, Svein-Harald Riisnaes and his partner wisely opted to play slam in no-trump, not in their 4-4 spade fit.
Opening Lead: ♦2
When dummy came down, declarer had just 10 top tricks despite the combined 32 HCP and West’s helpful lead of a diamond to the queen and ace. Needing just three spade tricks, South elected to lay down the spade ace (planning to lead up to the queen on the next round of the suit). When the king dropped from East — yes, this would have been a great moment for a false-card from the doubleton king — declarer could see his way to 12 tricks if the missing clubs broke 3-3. Equally, if West held a finessable doubleton jack or 10 of clubs, the 12th trick could be developed.
Accordingly, Riisnaes took the club king and ace, but when no jack or 10 appeared, he had no option but to play off the third top club. West, who had to discard on the third club winner, threw a heart away, so Riisnaes took the three heart winners (pitching his club from hand) to squeeze a diamond out of West. Next came the diamond king, then the jack, and that reduced South, West and North each to three spades.
Declarer now led a low spade away from the queen toward dummy’s nine. West won with the 10, but was endplayed, so that the spade queen and spade nine scored the last two tricks, and the slam came home.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 1NT
It looks natural enough to try for game here, but a jump to two no-trump should be invitational facing even a minimum overcall, and you are considerably short of the necessary firepower to issue such an invitation. Bidding only one no-trump sounds like an underbid, but you should leave it up to partner to bid on with extra high-cards or shape here.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
bid 2c as a forcing bid
i need 2 canbcel registration
why not 1S? North can have 4S and 4 or 5d so there would be fit on the line
If W keeps the J 10 of S and the 2D (instead of sluffing their last D ) then the contract is down 1.
If W keeps the J 10 of S and the 2D as his last 3 cards ( ie sluffs a spade instead of a D) Then declarer has to go down 1.
South keeps Q xx and N keeps 9 xx so end play does not work.
If W sluffs a spade instead of a diamond
South doesn't cash their last diamond, just
retains it and concedes a spade.