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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff

Opening Lead: ♠6

When this deal occurred in a local pairs game, most pairs landed in three no-trump. As North would occasionally raise a major-suit response to an opening one-bid with three trumps, South's three-no-trump call simply offered a choice of games. How would you play the game when West leads the spade six and East plays the queen?

Most defenders took East’s queen with the king and ran the club queen. East took this with the king and returned the spade seven. As the cards lay, the defenders now had no trouble in making four spade tricks, and those declarers finished down one.

One declarer allowed the spade queen to win the first trick and played the spade jack on the next trick. After some thought, the West at this table ducked, retaining his spade A-10 tenace over South’s remaining honor. This was enough to defeat the contract. When East won the club king and returned his remaining spade, West could take three more spade tricks.

The final declarer judged that West had led from spade length and, as he had not overcalled in spades, decided that the club king was likely to be wrong. He played the spade two at trick one and the spade four under the spade seven at trick two. East continued with a third round of spades to the jack and ace. However, when the club finesse lost, that was the last trick for the defense, and declarer could take one spade, two hearts and six tricks in the minors.

Bid with the aces

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

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