Hand of the day #325
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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♥K
In four spades declarer made the natural play of covering West's heart king with the ace, hoping against hope that East would follow, or at the very least that he would be ruffing with a natural trump trick. East trumped the trick and returned a spade — nice defense. Declarer played the club ace and ruffed a club, took the diamond ace, came to the diamond king and led a third club.
After much thought West pitched a heart, and declarer ruffed in dummy. But now he could not avoid losing a further heart, a club, and a trump promotion. Had West ruffed in on the third club and cashed his heart, declarer could not have been stopped from ruffing the fourth club in dummy and losing no more tricks.
For those of you interested in the art of squeeze-play, it is worth noting that declarer could have made his contract had he read the position perfectly. Imagine that you duck the first trick, then put up the heart ace when the defense leads a second heart. The best East can do is ruff and return a spade, and you draw two rounds of trump, then find the master play of ducking a club. You can now arrange to ruff a club in dummy and run your trumps. In the ending, East gets squeezed in the minors.
Even if East returns a diamond at trick three, declarer can win in dummy, set about the minor-suit crossruff, and come home with 10 tricks.
Bid with the aces
Answer: Double
This hand is just good enough to re-open with a double and convert your partner's response in hearts to spades. In direct seat this sequence shows 17 HCP or more, but since all actions in balancing seat start about a king lower, this hand is a sound minimum for the sequence. With a less well-put-together hand — the doubleton diamond Q-J instead of the king, say — you might bid one spade instead.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
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