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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff

Opening Lead: ♠J

Tim Bourke of Canberra, Australia, spotted this fine play in a delicate 4-3 fit from the Transnational Open Teams at the world championships.

Against four spades West led the spade jack to the seven, two and king. At trick two, declarer played the heart nine around to East’s king. That player switched to the diamond five to his partner’s king, on which declarer unblocked the 10 from dummy.

Now West returned the spade six. To maintain trump control and to cater to a possible 4-2 trump break, declarer played the eight from dummy. South won with the nine and persevered with the three to dummy’s queen. Declarer cashed the spade ace to draw the last trump, then finessed in diamonds, cashed the diamond ace (dropping the jack), then played the diamond queen. The clubs provided the rest of the tricks, giving 620 to East-West.

It was impossible to see, but had East continued with a top spade at trick three, the combination of the bad lies in spades and diamonds would have been too much for declarer. Of course, the auction had given him no chance to get this right.

But declarer had deviated from the winning line, one that he really should have spotted. Declarer’s best play is to duck trick one! Now the defenders cannot do anything. Maybe a club shift would be best, attacking declarer’s communications, but so long as he plays diamonds for two tricks, one way or another he is home.

Bid with the aces

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

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