Hand of the day #429
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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♥2
This deal was declared by John Crawford, a great American player of the early postwar years. I've substituted an auction that might occur today. After an opening call of two no-trump, it is common to play transfers at both the three- and four-level. The Texas transfer at the four-level is either to play or to be followed by Blackwood, while a transfer and raise is a mild slam-try.
Against four spades West led the heart two and Crawford took East’s heart king with the ace. Next he played the spade king, followed by the spade jack to the ace. Then came a heart to the nine and 10. West now shifted to clubs, declarer capturing East’s 10 with his ace.
Crawford next played the heart jack from his hand and discarded the club jack when West covered this with the queen. West did his best when he exited with a club, which was ruffed in dummy. Now the spade five to the queen allowed Crawford to eliminate the club suit by ruffing the club in dummy. Finally came a diamond to the 10, and when West won the diamond queen, he then had either to lead a diamond or concede a ruff-and-discard. Either way Crawford had his 10th trick.
It is hard to criticize West unduly, but a black-suit lead would have seen four spades fail since declarer does not have the timing right for the endplay on West.
Bid with the aces
Answer: Pass
Responding one no-trump suggests approximately these values and is a perfectly reasonable call. It is the action I would take unless facing a third-in-hand opening bid. But your hand looks very defensively oriented to me, so I would give partner a little latitude and take the more discreet route of passing and seeing what happens next.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
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