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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff

Opening Lead: ♥10

When the Open teams of England and Turkey met in the European Championships, Yalcin Atabey of Turkey had done well to reach five clubs as South. Those declarers who ended in three no-trump, whether North or South, were doomed to fail, as both East and West had natural red-suit leads.

In opposition were England’s Hackett twins, Justin and Jason, and Justin led a heart against the club game. At first glance there appear to be three losers — one in each of the red suits plus the spade ace. But with those excellent spade intermediates in dummy, the contract looks safe. Declarer will win the heart lead, enter dummy in trumps, and lead a spade to the king. West wins with the ace and leads a heart to East’s king. East does best to return a diamond. However, a spade to the queen and a spade ruff set up the suit. It only remains to finish drawing trump and discard two diamonds from hand on dummy’s spades.

Declarer began as prophesied. At trick three, Atabey led a spade to the king, which held, Justin ducking impassively. South continued with a spade to the 10. In with the jack, Jason returned a diamond, taken by dummy’s ace. Atabey drew the remaining trumps, then confidently led the spade queen, on which he discarded a diamond, believing that East held the ace. But it was West who produced this card, and his diamond return saw the game drift two down.

Bid with the aces

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

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