Hand of the day #393
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: ♥3
Today's deal has two problems in one. In both cases you play in six spades, but in one case you receive the unfriendly heart lead, which sets up a winner for the defenders immediately. In the other case you receive a passive club lead. How should your approaches differ?
The deal, like all this week’s deals, comes from the world championships in Beijing.
West led the heart three and declarer won with the ace, drew trumps, eliminated the clubs ending in hand, and exited with a heart. East allowed West to win and he exited with a low diamond. (I’ve been told the jack is the best shot, but it never seems to work when I try it.) Declarer took East’s queen with the ace, and the diamond finesse gave him plus-980.
In the other room the lead was a trump. Is there a better plan than the one described above? Yes, your best play is to draw trumps and go after diamonds to establish a discard for your heart loser. It is a very close decision whether to lead them from the top or finesse twice against West. So the best approach is to test clubs before playing diamonds. If West shows any real spade or club length, you should go for two finesses against her by leading to the nine, then to the king and finessing. If West appears to be shorter in clubs than East, play diamonds from the top.
Lead with the aces
Answer: ♠ Lead
On an auction of this sort there seems to be no obvious urgency to lead diamonds. If declarer is going to set up clubs or hearts successfully, he will probably be making his contract whatever you do. But what may be relevant is the need to kill a ruff in dummy. And when your side holds the balance of high cards, as appears to be the case here, repeated trump leads might be effective.
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.
