Hand of the day #223
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff At the table it would be easy to predict what ...
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
I do not want the readers of this column to think I publish deals that involve me just to show myself in a good light. On the contrary, I am aware that a neutral observer would probably find more howlers than brilliancies if they were to scrutinize the record carefully. As Bob Hamman said: “The best play lousy, the rest worse.”
Opening Lead: ♦4
At the Forbo tournament there was an introductory four-way international match. When U.S.A. played Italy, the two teams failed to land a blow in the first eight boards — but then came the deluge in favor of Italy, and I started the flood.
Here I opened a strong no-trump and declared four hearts after a Stayman inquiry. Receiving a diamond lead, I won the jack and made what I thought was the natural play when I ran the heart jack at trick two. When Alfredo Versace won this and returned a heart, I took this in the dummy and found that I could no longer ruff two clubs in dummy because of the 5-2 club split, and so had to go down.
By contrast, Norberto Bocchi for Italy accurately took a club finesse at trick two and won the diamond return to play the club ace, then ruff a club high. When East discarded on this trick, Bocchi crossed back to hand in trumps to ruff a second club, then played off the second top heart to drop the queen offside. With the spade ace his only other loser, he made an overtrick for a gain of 13 IMPs.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 2♠
With the opponents coming to a stop in two clubs, you have just enough to compete to two spades. Because you know your partner was eager for you to compete, your four-card spade suit should entitle you to bid now. That you did not bid one spade at your first turn limits you to at most a five-count.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
2SP