Hand of the day #400
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
Against your six-spade contract the opening lead is the diamond three. You win the ace, RHO playing the eight. Plan the play to protect against as many bad breaks as possible.
After winning dummy’s diamond ace, play the spade ace, and now switch your attention to hearts. Lead out the queen, then play to the heart king.
If West discards on the second heart, win, ruff a heart, then lead a trump to dummy and run the hearts. It doesn’t matter if the third heart is overruffed since you can ruff a diamond in dummy, then draw the last trump; equally, West’s ruffing in on the second heart would clearly be fatal.
If it was East who could ruff the second heart to play a club, win with the ace, cross in spades (drawing the opponent’s last trump), then ruff a heart, ruff a club, and run the hearts.
What happens if hearts are 5-0? If RHO ruffs the heart queen, you may still survive in much the same way as before. You simply need to take a heart finesse somewhere along the line after drawing the last trump. If LHO ruffs the heart queen, you will still survive if he does not have a third trump to play. (You have just enough entries to set up the long heart.) All in all, six spades makes except against 4-0 trumps or against a combined very bad heart break and trump break, when nothing would have worked.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 2♣
The hand is too good for a rebid in either hearts or spades. Best is to cuebid two clubs, simply showing a good hand, planning to bid two spades over two of a red suit from partner. This way your partner will know of real extras opposite (typically extra high-cards rather than four-card trump support). If you play — as I do — that one spade promises five, cuebid, then jump to three spades to force to game.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
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