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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff

Opening Lead: ♥Q

In today's deal from the Seattle Nationals, South reached three no-trump after his vulnerable opponents had done a lot of bidding. So it was fair to assume suits wouldn't split.

The heart queen held the trick on opening lead. A second heart to the ace was followed by a third heart, on which declarer had to discard from dummy. Name your poison!

South erred in practice — and maybe in theory as well — by pitching a spade. He then crossed to the club king to play a diamond to his ace (hoping East had a doubleton queen or jack, in which case the suit might be set up without letting West on lead) as his best chance to bring in the diamonds.

The 4-1 break in diamonds — disappointing but hardly surprising — brought South up short. East discarded a spade, and the best declarer could do was finesse in spades against East and hope for the clubs to break. Hardly surprising that that chance failed, but declarer had already given up his best play for the ninth trick.

Had he pitched a club from dummy at trick three, play would have continued precisely as before. But after a spade to the jack holds, declarer cashes his spade king and plays three rounds of clubs. Because the spade A-10 remains in dummy, declarer would have been able to endplay East in clubs to lead a spade into dummy’s A-10 at the end for his ninth trick.

Bid with the aces

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

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