Hand of the day #428
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: ♥10
In the Bermuda Bowl Seniors match between France and Poland, both tables defended four spades. Jerzy Russyan for Poland led the spade five to the nine and queen, and Francois Leenhardt took the heart finesse at trick two, losing to the queen. Krzysztof Lasocki led the diamond king back, and Leenhardt won the ace, drew trumps, and tried to split the hearts. When that failed, he tried a club to the king and was one down when that suit too was unfriendly : minus 50.
For France, Philippe Vanhoutte led the diamond seven to the queen and ace and Apolinary Kowalski drew trumps in three rounds, ending in dummy. Now he led a diamond toward his jack, which East had to duck. (Had he taken his queen, he would have built a discard for declarer’s heart loser.)
Now Kowalski followed up by cashing the heart ace and king. When the queen appeared, two more rounds of hearts (with the diamond loser being pitched) endplayed Vanhoutte to concede a trick to the club king. That was plus 450 for 11 IMPs to Poland.
Given that diamonds were 4-2, Kowalski understood that if the heart finesse was working, he did not need to take it — at least if the hearts were breaking 3-3 or 4-2. Had the heart queen not appeared, he could have played a third heart anyway. Even if West could win cheaply and play the fourth heart, Kowalski would simply discard his diamond loser, and the endplay would still ensure the contract.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 3♦
Three diamonds. Although I'm loath to suggest additional conventions for the intermediate player, I believe that a raise to three diamonds should be forcing now. With a weak hand here, South should bid either fourth suit or two no-trump (whichever is cheaper) as an artificial statement of weakness, denying five cards in his original suit. Repeating his own suit should simply show five cards and be a one-round force.
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.
