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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff

Opening Lead: ♣7

When the world championships took place in Beijing years ago, the main event followed the qualifying stages. Here is a sparkling piece of play from Round 16 of that event.

As Mark Horton, a journalist, remarked, one of the delights of Beijing is the opportunity to enjoy its famous Peking duck, but that is not the only dish it offers. This cosmopolitan city ofers a wide range of international cuisine. Poland’s Ewa Harasimowicz conjured up a wonderful dish at the table. It featured a coulis of squeeze, a dash of throw-in garnished with an endplay, the whole thing being stirred with a Morton’s Fork.

Against four hearts West led the club seven. East took the ace and returned the suit, West winning and playing a third round, ruffed by declarer. Knowing that East, who had already showed up with the club ace-queen, was unlikely to have the diamond ace, declarer played a low diamond toward dummy’s king. West could not afford to play the ace or the spade loser would go away. When the diamond king held, declarer settled down to run the trump suit.

In the five-card ending, West had three spades and the ace-jack of diamonds, but had to discard the diamond jack on the last trump. Now declarer could exit with the queen of diamonds to endplay West to lead a spade around to declarer’s jack.

Bid with the aces

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

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