Hand of the day #429
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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♣A
When defending against a major-suit game, you might be tempted to try to cash an ace in another suit. But sometimes you have to resist temptation.
Not every North-South reached four spades in this deal from the European Teams Championships. Those who did, but did not receive a club lead, had no difficulty in coming to 10 tricks by way of five spades and five diamonds. However, in the match between Israel and Poland, Michael Barel had no problem leading clubs after Yoram Aviram’s helpful hint in the auction. The four-club call guaranteed heart support and showed where his values lay. Aviram’s bid led Barel to the best lead, the club ace. East overtook the club jack continuation, then cashed the club king. It must have been tempting to continue with the heart ace, as West’s overcall promised no more than a six-card suit. But when West pitched a low heart, Aviram realized that his partner had started with a seven-card suit, and the heart winner was not going to stand up. Had West started with six hearts, he would have pitched a high heart.
Equally, with his trump holding of 10-9-8, Aviram appreciated that West only needed to hold the spade jack or queen, be it doubleton or singleton, for the contract to be defeated. So he continued with a fourth round of clubs, and sure enough, West ruffed with the spade jack, elevating East’s trump holding to the setting trick.
Lead with the aces
Answer: ♠J
Lead the spade jack. When leading partner’s suit, lead the top of a two-card sequence. The spade jack might cost you a trick in the suit if partner were short, but when your side has nine-plus cards in a suit, leading the top honor should be safe and more revealing than a low card.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
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It's nice Aviram knew about 7 hearts, but it isn't needed to prevent him from trying to cash heart Ace. He should NEVER try on this hand.
IF declarer does have a heart he is 5143 (or 6133 with partner having diamond Jxxx at least) and the heart loser can not be discarded, so not cashing the Ace just adds an additional down chance needed when partner does have 7 hearts, but it can never cost.