Hand of the day #460
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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♣K
When this deal occurred in a team game, at the first of the two tables West made his natural lead of the club king against three no trump. Declarer allowed this to hold the trick, as he did the club queen continuation.
South won the third club perforce, and counting eight tricks, chose to combine his chances in the red suits to seek the ninth. He cashed the heart king, then the ace, but no queen appeared. His last chance was the diamond finesse, but when that also failed, so did the contract.
At the second table, and against the same lead, South won the second club and was pleased to see that East followed. Declarer then led three rounds of spades, and this time was happy to see West discarding on the third round. He was about to cash dummy’s last spade when he paused to do a little arithmetic.
He intended to throw West in with a club, thereby effecting an endplay in the red suits. But for this he needed two discards for the clubs, so he had to retain the heart K-J-5 and the diamond A-Q in hand. Therefore he could not cash the fourth spade until West had taken his club tricks.
So declarer left the spade winner in dummy and played a club at once. West took his tricks as South pitched one card from each red suit, but then had to concede the balance.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 2♣
Although I've expressed my distaste for overcalling in a five-card suit at the two-level, there are exceptions. A very chunky suit in an overcall that takes up the maximum space is perfectly forgivable. Here you make both major suits more difficult for West to bid, and making the opponents' life hard is always laudable. Vulnerable, I'd think twice, though, if facing a passing partner.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
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