À qui la faute ? Par Alain Lévy - N°16
Cet article a été écrit par Alain Lévy et a été initialement publié par ...
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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♣6
While a fair percentage of the North-South field reached four spades on this deal from a major pairs game, with mixed success, two spades was a sensible partscore.
The club six was often the lead from West, and declarer usually put up dummy’s king to muddy the waters. When East took the ace, he had the problem of whether to play for a ruff or to cash the hearts. It looked reasonable to return a club, and now declarer was in with a shout to make his game.
However, when he takes the club jack, he has to decide what to do next. Obviously, he has two potential winners in dummy for his heart losers. And indeed if diamonds are 3-3, he might emerge with 11 tricks, but if he plays for the diamond break, he might finish with only nine winners. For example, if he tests diamonds after cashing the top spades and the suit breaks 4-2, he might not get the club discard in time.
The best play is to enlist the opposition’s help by leading the diamond queen before cashing the spade ace-king. Both defenders can be expected to give honest count, perhaps each assuming their partner has the diamond ace. Now when the suit seems to be 3-3, declarer can cash the top spades, unblock the diamonds, and follow up with the club queen. When the same hand is long in both black suits, declarer can next play the 13th diamond and get both his hearts away for an additional, and valuable, overtrick.
Lead with the aces
Answer: 8♥
This is a simple choice between the majors. Is a spade lead more likely to give declarer something he cannot do for himself, given that partner rates to be 5-5 or 5-4 in the majors (and unsuitable for a reopening double)? I lean toward a heart if only because this might go some way to insuring a ruff or overruff for our side.
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.
