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
When both sides have a good fit and the bidding gets high quickly, it is always hard to judge who can make what. It is often a sound principle to keep on bidding when in doubt. Maybe you can make your contract, or maybe it is a good sacrifice. That was why North tried five diamonds over four hearts.
Opening Lead: ♥5
Declarer ruffed the heart lead, crossed to hand with a club, then ruffed another heart. However, the pace of play now slowed down and declarer was short of winning options. In practice he played a low spade, but East went in with the king and switched to a trump.
Declarer ran this to dummy but now, with the spade suit blocked, the best he could do was cash the spade ace and jack, discarding a heart. In the end he had to lose a trump and a club to go with the spade already lost.
Although it looked tempting to play to ruff hearts in dummy immediately, declarer should have foreseen that this line might not work against a bad trump break. Look at the effect of playing a spade at trick two.
Say that East goes in with the king, as before, and plays a trump. Declarer runs this to dummy, plays a spade to the queen, ruffs another heart, and cashes the spade ace while discarding a heart, then plays the spade jack. Whether East ruffs in or discards, declarer loses just one more trick.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 4♣
Your partner's double shows a good hand, unsuitable for a call of three no-trump, something akin to an optional double. It looks normal to bid four clubs now, suggesting extra club length and allowing your partner to decide where to go from here.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.