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: ♠6

I am always happy to receive deals from my readers. It doesn't matter that they didn't find the right play at the table, as long as the theme is an interesting one. We can all learn from real-life hands, even when not played by experts.

Today, Orville St. Clair, declarer in six no-trump, won the helpful spade lead in hand with the jack. West should surely have led a heart here — not that it would have worked out any better.

Now declarer finessed the spade queen, more to find out how many tricks he needed in the other suits than with great confidence that it would hold. Once the finesse worked, South was up to 11 sure winners, so correctly decided to set up a threat in hearts by leading a low one from dummy and putting in the nine. He was delighted to see it hold the trick.

Of course, if East had split his honors, declarer would have had 12 top tricks. As it was, South was now playing for a 13th winner. The best order to take the tricks is the heart ace, then one club and the spade ace, discarding a heart from hand. East has to pitch a diamond, and declarer must decide if he had begun with three diamonds and four clubs (when the three top diamonds would squeeze him in clubs and hearts) or with his actual hand, when cashing the clubs squeezes East in diamonds and hearts. St. Clair read the position accurately and brought home 13 tricks.

Bid with the aces

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.

Click here to play earlier Hands of the day ▶