Hand of the day #268
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff Sometimes the problem in a bridge deal becomes...
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Against four hearts, West leads the spade king. Good deceptive declarer play is to drop the spade eight on this trick, trying to persuade West that East's spade five is high, not low. But West was not born yesterday. He refuses to take the bait, instead switching to the diamond queen. Plan the play from here on.
Opening Lead: ♠K
The first key point to bear in mind is that since West passed as dealer and has already shown up with 10 points, East must have the club king. If you take an early club finesse, East will win his king and shift back to spades, setting up four winners for the defenders. How can you avoid the need for taking the club finesse?
The answer is rather subtle: duck the diamond queen, win the diamond continuation, and play the heart king and a heart to the jack. Cash the diamond ace (discarding a club) and club ace, and take the ruffing club finesse.
It would not have done West any good to cash the spade ace at trick three, since you would have the rest of the tricks without needing to work hard. But note that West might have worked out to shift to the diamond jack so as not to give the show away. It would not matter if East was confused about the location of the diamond honors since he does not need to know what is going on.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 1NT
With a maximum in the 12-14 range and a heart stop, a contract rates to play just as well with you as declarer, I would bid one no-trump now. Conceivably three no-trump might be better from your partner's hand, but you cannot afford to pass up the opportunity to bid no-trump at your first turn, or you may not get another chance.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
Double. Partner required guard in hearts. With diamond good suit he can rebid.