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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff

Opening Lead: ♠3

Andrew Robson, bridge correspondent for The London Times and one of England's finest players, owns a hugely successful bridge club. In today's deal Robson was West. You may care to cover up the South and East hands and plan your defense against three no-trump. You lead the spade three and dummy's jack holds the trick. Declarer plays a low club to the queen and king. What now?

Suppose you play back a spade. Declarer wins and cashes his clubs, forcing you to pitch a diamond. He leads a diamond up, letting you win your king and exit in spades. But declarer cashes the diamond queen and throws you in with a spade to give the lead back in hearts, letting him cash the diamond ace for his ninth trick. If you discarded a heart on the club, declarer can play a heart instead. After taking two hearts and a spade, you will have to lead a diamond, and South is not going to guess wrong.

Robson found a more dynamic defense: when he was in with the club king: He switched to the diamond king. Declarer won and cashed his black-suit winners, but Robson discarded a heart. He could now establish a diamond to go with two hearts and two black-suit tricks.

Declarer missed a resource: He should have ducked the diamond king. He wins the diamond continuation, then cashes his diamond ace, his high clubs and spades before exiting with a spade, forcing West to give him a heart trick at the end.

Bid with the aces

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

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