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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff

Opening Lead: ♥9

Today's deal comes from an international match between Poland and Portugal. At first glance you might imagine it was a dull four-heart contract with the spade ace onside. The only thing that appears to be at stake is the overtrick.

In the closed room, on the lead of the spade 10, the Portuguese declarer made 11 tricks without raising a sweat, by guessing the diamond jack. But Jacek Romanski got a less helpful heart-nine lead to his 10. Can you see the best line?

Obviously you could simply play a spade to the king at some point after drawing trumps, then rely on your table presence to find the diamond jack — a line that is perhaps just a bit better than 75 percent. But you do have an even better chance once trumps turn out to be 2-2.

You should play the heart king at trick two, then ruff out the clubs by playing three rounds of the suit, and next play a diamond to the queen. When it holds, you run the diamond 10. Even if the defenders have two diamonds to cash, West will be endplayed after taking his winners. If the diamond queen loses to the ace, you can still succeed if East has either the diamond jack or the spade ace.

This line succeeds unless all three critical cards are badly placed. In other words, you come home seven times out of eight. The fact that the spade ace was onside all along does not spoil the elegance of this line.

Lead with the aces

This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.

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