Hand of the day #460
You can now play the hand of the day on BBO+ and compare how you get on with the...
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: ♦2
Today's deal sees an interesting and quite difficult variation of a safety play; give it a few seconds' thought before starting the play!
In the contract of six hearts the opening diamond lead goes to the jack and ace. Declarer follows up with the heart ace and queen, drawing all the trump. At this point declarer has 11 tricks (two spades, six hearts, the diamond ace, a diamond ruff, and a sure club trick). East is marked with the club ace, and the best hope for a second club trick is to find the clubs 4-3.
However, an extra chance comes by ducking the first club altogether in case West has five or six clubs. Suppose East wins cheaply and plays the spade queen. Win the spade king and ruff a club low. When the ace falls, declarer has 12 tricks. But suppose, instead, that East had three or four clubs headed by the ace.
After the second club is ruffed, the diamond six is ruffed in dummy. Now the club king is played from North. East’s ace is ruffed out, and the heart king is the entry to the two club winners in dummy.
In other words, by ducking the first club and ruffing the second club before playing out the top honors, you make the contract whenever East has the club ace and fewer than five clubs, instead of relying on the clubs to break.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 2♣
Your hand may not be quite worth an overcall, but the advantage of bidding two clubs is that you get partner off to the right lead against either a heart or no-trump overcall. When you are in doubt, one thing to take into account with an overcall is whether you really want that suit led, and DON'T want any other suit led.
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.