Bookworm Bridge Conundrums #53
This conundrum was written by Barbara Seagram's and was originally published in ...
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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♠10
Today's deal, from a knockout match, featured some excellent play and defense, after a well-judged sequence where North made a slam-try and South drove straight to six hearts.
Superficially, the slam appears to depend on East holding either the club queen or the diamond ace (so a spade can be discarded from one hand or the other).
At one table declarer won the spade lead in hand, cashed the heart ace, and played a heart to dummy. He now played a diamond to his king, which West astutely ducked in perfect tempo. Convinced that East held the diamond ace, declarer crossed back to dummy with a third trump and played a second diamond. This time West won and played the diamond jack to remove dummy’s last trump. Now declarer could not avoid a spade loser.
At the other table South used his entries more efficiently. At trick two he crossed to dummy with a heart and played a diamond immediately. As it happened, West won and declarer now played successfully for the club finesse. However, if West had ducked, declarer would have crossed to dummy with a second trump and played a second diamond. West would have won this and taken a trump out of dummy by playing a third round of diamonds. But now declarer would have been able to take the club finesse, cash the club ace, and cross back to dummy with a trump. He would then have discarded his spade loser on dummy’s club king.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 4♥ or Pass
If you are going to bid, the most attractive call is four hearts. If your partner can force you to bid at the three-level with nothing, you surely have enough to try game. Passing for penalties is almost as attractive. Your club values look more useful on defense than offense, and where are the opponents' tricks going to come from?
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
You can now play the hand of the day on BBO+ and compare how you get on with the players in the article.
4!H feels like punishing partner for stretching to keep the bidding going. I'd bid only 3 especially at MP and probably pass rather than bid 4. My !CK is most likely wasted and doesn't even provide an useful discard. Also any finesse is probably wrong.