The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff

Understandably, once today’s 4-4 fit was identified in an uncontested auction, the Danish North chose to play in the spade game. But the suit game stood no chance against the 4-1 trump break, along with a plethora of losers in the plain suits, and it finished down two.

Opening Lead: ♥5

However, in the room that we are focusing on, things were very different; there was no way here that North-South could find their spade fit. Equally, it was undeniable that Catherine D’Ovidio of France did not exactly underbid her hand when she headed to the no-trump game facing a passed partner.

If West had led a club, or even a spade, d’Ovidio’s game might have been defeated. But in response to her partner’s opener, West led a heart, which South won. Reaching nine tricks seems to require West to have the spade king, and for the diamond suit to produce five tricks. But with so few lines of communications between the North and South hands, how do you come to nine tricks without setting up too many tricks for the defenders — especially since South’s only entry is the diamond ace?

D’Ovidio found the solution — she ducked a diamond in both hands at trick two. Then, with the diamond king dropping doubleton, she was able to cross to her diamond ace, take the second heart winner, finesse in spades, and run dummy’s four diamond winners to make her contract.

Bid with the aces

This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.

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