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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff

Opening Lead: ♥3

Curiously, the way to beat three spades here is by leading dummy's short suit. However, although Tom Hanlon and Hugh McGann of Ireland did not find this lead when representing Europe in the Buffett Bridge Cup against the USA, they still found an ingenious way to defeat the partscore.

Against three spades Hanlon led a low heart to the two and king — McGann couldn’t be certain that South did not hold the singleton jack. At trick two, McGann found the fine switch to a low diamond, which declarer elected to win in hand. Had he taken with dummy’s ace instead, he would have been better placed.

Then came the trump king. If West wins this, then whether he returns a trump or a diamond, declarer can duck a club and later have two clubs available for diamond discards. But Hanlon withheld his ace, and now South could not chance playing another trump, as the defenders could then remove dummy’s trump and knock out the diamond ace before the clubs were set up.

Declarer therefore continued with three rounds of clubs, East pitching a diamond on the third. In with the club queen, Hanlon essentially returned a diamond. Since it was still unsafe to lead another trump, declarer continued with a fourth round of clubs. On this, McGann, to deter his partner from returning a heart, discarded the heart ace! Hanlon duly trumped the club and returned a diamond for East to overruff dummy. The trump ace was the defenders’ fifth trick.

Bid with the aces

This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.

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