Hand of the day #402
You can now play the hand of the day on BBO+ and compare how you get on with the...
You can now play the hand of the day on BBO+ and compare how you get on with the players in the article.
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♦A
"Cover an honor with an honor" is a well-known bridge adage, but as with most such rules, there are plenty of exceptions. Today's declarer exploited East's knee-jerk reaction to cover. But perhaps it would be best to start by concealing the East-West cards, and only then to make your plan on the lead of the diamond ace followed by a shift to the club five. (Yes, a spade switch would have been the killer.)
In four hearts, declarer won with dummy’s ace, drew the outstanding trumps with the ace and king, and astutely played the spade jack from the dummy. East played the king… and the rest is history.
East could not attack clubs to advantage, so he continued with another diamond. Declarer ruffed in the dummy and played a spade to the queen and West’s ace. West played another club, but declarer won the king, played a spade to his 10, crossed back to dummy with a trump, and cashed the spade nine, discarding his club loser.
When you think about it, it is hard to see how covering the spade jack could gain. Unfortunately for him, East did not think about it!
The “power of the closed hand” is worth remembering. All things being equal, it often works well to play toward the closed hand rather than toward the dummy. It generally makes it much harder for the defenders to decide whether to win or duck when they cannot see what third hand will play.
Bid with the aces
Answer: Double
When your partner overcalls one no-trump, play similar methods to what you would do if he opens the bidding with that call. So is it best to play penalties here, or to make a takeout bid? I feel that when the opponents bid and raise a suit, double should be takeout. It still lets you catch the opponents speeding when partner has a penalty double of diamonds. Double of a new suit bid by your RHO can sensibly be played as penalty.
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.
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3!D