Hand of the day #224
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff I do not want the readers of this column to th...
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Today’s deal is from the 2007 Round Robin encounter between regular Bermuda Bowl finals protagonists, Italy and USA2. The American South had achieved a coup in the auction, keeping his opponents out of their makable four-spade game. Could he do even better by bringing home 10 tricks himself in the heart game?
Opening Lead: ♣Q
When West led the club queen, South won in dummy, and with endplay possibilities in mind, cashed the diamond ace, collecting the king from East. Declarer drew trump with the ace and king, then exited with a diamond. West won, cashed two diamonds, then played a spade. That was a tame one-off.
By contrast, Steen Moller, playing for Denmark in the Seniors Bowl, showed how to make the game. He too received the lead of the club queen. Moller won with the ace, cashed the heart ace, then also continued with the diamond ace. Now Moller drew the last trump with dummy’s jack, then, reading both the club queen and diamond king as singletons, followed with a low club, discarding a spade from hand and leaving East endplayed.
East could think of nothing better to do than take his spade ace and return a spade. Moller won in dummy, discarding a diamond from hand, then ruffed a club.
Re-entering dummy with a heart, Moller now played dummy’s last club, the jack. East covered, and South threw his penultimate diamond. Endplayed yet again, East was forced to give Moller a ruff and discard — and away went declarer’s final diamond. Contract made!
Bid with the aces
Answer: 3♥
Your partner should be checking back for a second suit or to find three-card spade support. With a good club stopper and only two spades, you might want to play in no-trump. But just in case partner has four hearts, you can bid three hearts now. If your partner rebids three spades, you can go past three no-trump, confident that you will be facing a six-card spade suit.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
3 NT is not unreasonable. You have the heart stopper and game is in the offing. 3 NT making 10 tricks is worth more than 4 spades in matchpoints.
I have to remember this game.
If partner is fishing for a 4 suit, I expect him to bid; I think he is showing a good hand with 6 card spade; so my bid will be 4 soade