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
Defense is one of the hardest aspects of the game. But somehow, when the chances of defeating a contract seem remote, life is not so hard. If there is only one card for partner to hold that would enable you to defeat a contract, then you must play him for that card.
Opening Lead: ♥5
As West, you lead the heart five against South’s three no-trump. Partner plays the 10 and declarer wins with the king. He then plays the club ace and another club. How do you defend?
The first thing to do is to work out how many points your partner has. Here declarer has 22 – 24 and dummy six, so partner can have at most a queen or a king. Declarer must have the spade ace or queen (or both), so dummy has a certain entry, and as soon as you win your club king, declarer will have a total of four tricks in that suit. If you are going to beat three no-trump, you need to do so now.
The only helpful card that partner can possibly have is the diamond king, along with two other cards in the suit, leaving declarer with queen-jack doubleton. So you should win the club king and switch to the diamond two. The subtle point here is that you cannot afford to duck the club king, as you normally would in this type of situation, because it is quite likely that declarer will then have nine tricks to cash — as would happen today.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 2NT
The simple solution here is to jump to two no-trump. Since a bid of one no-trump in this sequence would show 18-20 points, a call of two no-trump shows approximately 21-22. I agree that it is possible that a 4-3 major-suit fit might play better, but since there is no scientific way to find out, settle for the value bid and let partner explore other strains if his hand warrants it.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.