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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff

Opening Lead: ♥7

The intrafinesse is one of the more obscure bridge plays and comes in all shapes and sizes. Often the problem is simply determining whether to go for the play, or to rely on something else.

Here, at matchpoints, Kit Woolsey as South reached four no-trump. On a heart lead declarer required the clubs to lie in a very specific fashion in order for them to produce three tricks. He needed the doubleton 10 sitting over him or to for East to hold a doubleton king-queen or bare honor.

However, the key to the hand is to avoid committing yourself at once, but to win the heart ace, and take two top diamonds, at which point you find East with shortage. On that basis you should play West for short clubs, namely the club Q-10 or K-10. What you do is lead up to the club jack, varying your play according to what West does. If (as happened at the table) he puts up his honor and clears the hearts, go to dummy in diamonds and play the club jack to squash the 10. When the cards lay exactly as Woolsey required them to do, he racked up plus 430 for a fine result, since the heart sacrifice costs only 300.

West could have left declarer with work to do had he put in the club 10 on the first round of the suit. Then Woolsey would have had to decide whether West had a singleton10, a doubleton 10, or his actual holding.

Bid with the aces

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

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