Hand of the day #258
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff Declarer looked beyond the obvious when playin...
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Today’s South considered himself unlucky to have gone down in four spades, but received little sympathy from his partner. Can you do better? Plan the play in four spades after the defenders play three rounds of clubs.
Opening Lead: ♣6
This looks like a very simple hand, but declarer must be careful. If he draws trumps straightaway, he will go down when spades break 4-2, for he will never make the heart trick he needs for his contract. When a defender wins the heart ace, he is likely to have a club to cash, since you will be out of trumps altogether. This was what happened to our unlucky declarer, who drew trumps first, then thought about the hand later.
Once you see the problem, the solution is simple. All declarer must do is play a heart at trick four, before touching any trump. If the defenders play a fourth round of clubs, he can take the ruff in the dummy.
This line is not absolutely foolproof. If the clubs split 5-3 and one hand is long in both black suits, that opponent may be able to win the heart ace and lead a fourth club for his partner to ruff, trying to promote a trump trick for his side. But this requires a combination of three relatively unlikely eventualities, and if the cards lie this way and the defenders get it right, good luck to them!
Lead with the aces
Answer: Lead a small heart
It must surely be correct to lead a heart, not a spade, on this auction. With the live possibility that dummy may have a singleton heart honor (or that partner may have a blocking doubleton heart king or 10), the lead of a small heart rather than an honor looks like the best shot to get the suit going for the defenders.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
Pass