Hand of the day #257
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff When both sides have a good fit and the biddin...
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Today's deal comes from the finals of a national championship. How would you evaluate South's cards?
Opening Lead: ♠K
In one room South opened three hearts. West doubled, North raised to four hearts, and South fell from grace by bidding on to five hearts over East’s four-spade bid. It is better for South to double here to show extra shape, wanting to bid again, though North might well have got it wrong and bid five hearts himself, but then it would have been his fault! The defenders cashed out for 300.
In the other room Ishmael Del’Monte opened four hearts, doubled by West to end the auction. (Most play this double nowadays to be closer to takeout than optional, but maybe the fact that West was a rubber-bridge expert made his double more inclined to penalties.)
West led the spade king to get a count card of the five, and continued with the ace — the queen might have been clearer. East followed with the three, leaving West to guess if this was suit-preference for clubs from an original holding of four spades, or an original doubleton spade.
Either way, though, how could cashing the diamond ace next have been wrong? If partner discourages, you revert to spades and wait for your club tricks if any. In fact, West played a third spade and declarer trumped, then ruffed out the clubs via the trump finesse. He ended up with three clubs and seven hearts, for 590.
Lead with the aces
Answer: Clubs/Hearts
The best way to set up extra tricks here might be to lead hearts — but only if partner is stacked in that suit. A more plausible route might be to lead clubs, hoping for an early ruff, and maybe a trump promotion in the suit later on.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
