Hand of the day #420
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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♣J
Today's deal comes from a knockout match in a regional event where all the players were not only competent, but (as usual) had an appropriately high opinion of their own abilities.
When one East-West pair came back to score up, their teammates called out “minus 50” and the first pair announced that they had conceded 420. Nothing more was said for a few seconds, then East made the mistake of asking how South had gone down.
He was told that, against four hearts, West had led the club jack (denying a higher honor). Declarer won, cashed the heart ace and jack, and played a spade to dummy’s king and East’s ace. Can you see what the defense ought to do now?
In one room East made no mistake when he switched to the diamond queen. Just because East knew the contract would be cold if South covered, didn’t mean that HE knew that.
Look at the problem from declarer’s perspective. If East has the Q-J-9, he would be right to duck the queen. Even if he had covered and West had guessed to win and play a low diamond back, declarer would have been likely to go wrong.
When the unfortunate South retaliated by asking how the defense had gone in the other room, East (who had shifted to a low diamond at the critical moment) had little excuse but to say that the sun had got in his eyes at the critical moment.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 4♠
In context you have a suitable hand for slam after your initial negative response. The only ways you could get your values across now (since you have nothing to cuebid) would be to jump to five hearts — which I would do if I had one fewer spade and one more heart — or to raise to four spades, in case partner has four trumps and would find there was a useful discard available in that strain.
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.