Bookworm Bridge Conundrums #71
This conundrum was written by NICOLAS LHUISSIER and was originally pub...
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: ♣K
A vise squeeze conjures up images of the jaws tightening till something has to give. In England it is called a vice squeeze, which conjures up a completely different image.
You don’t recognize the maneuver? Well, Antonio Sementa demonstrated it nicely here.
Whereas four hearts had gone down without a fight in the other room (declarer winning the first club, cashing the heart ace, and running into a trump promotion), Sementa ducked the first club, then led out the heart ace, and overtook the diamond jack with the diamond queen to play a second heart. East won the king and exited in diamonds.
Sementa won in hand, drew the outstanding trump, then tested diamonds, ruffing the fourth diamond back to hand. He had reached an ending where he had played four rounds of hearts, two clubs and four diamonds. He could simply have played for the spade ace to be onside now, but the auction had suggested this would not work.
Instead, Sementa led out the last trump. He was hoping to find the queen-jack of spades onside together with the club guard. And so it proved. On the last trump West had to pitch a spade, reducing to one honor and his master club, and now declarer led a spade up to the queen, king and ace, scoring trick 13 with the spade 10.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 4♥ or 5♠
Do not show this problem to anyone of an impressionable age or to a player suffering from a weak heart. My recommendation is that you use four hearts as a slam-try in spades, neither promising nor denying a heart control. The logic is that with four of a minor being natural here, you need a slam-try for spades. The choice — quite a reasonable alternative — is to jump to five spades to ask for a heart control.
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.
