Hand of the day #408
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: ♥6
Reaching six no-trump from the North seat would be too hard for most of us. After you open two clubs and rebid two no-trump to show a good 22-24 points, you have failed the "test." Incidentally, North might have explored for a minor-suit fit, the easiest way being to jump to five no-trump to offer a choice of slams.
Of course, West leads a heart. Resignedly, you call for dummy’s heart queen, not in the least surprised when this loses to East’s king. How will you play the contract when East returns a second round of hearts, removing your safe entry to dummy at an inconvenient moment?
Five diamond tricks and four club tricks will bring the total to 12. You will need to find East with the club king, of course, but you must also solve the blockage problem in diamonds. The best line is to lead the club queen from dummy. If East follows with a low club, you must unblock the club 10 from your hand. When the finesse wins, as you must hope, you continue with a low club to your jack. If East began with a doubleton or tripleton club king, you will be able to pick up the clubs. Then you can unblock the three top diamond honors and finally return to dummy by overtaking the club five with dummy’s six.
Dummy’s two remaining diamonds, plus the top spades in your hand, will allow you to claim the slam.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 4♥
Your partner's jump to three diamonds is invitational, not forcing. (With a game-force, he would start with a cuebid.) So you can expect a 5-4 hand with extras, and in that context your best game is surely four hearts since it is easy to imagine hands where both red suits will have three top losers. So bid four hearts.
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.
