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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff

Opening Lead: ♣Q

When South discovered that his side had all the key-cards, his mind turned optimistically for a second to thoughts of a spade grand slam. One of the merits of Key-card Blackwood is that it also allows you to identify the trump queen and specific kings. When North showed the spade queen but denied any kings, South knew he was high enough.

Against the small slam the lead was the club queen to South’s king. The two top spades draw all the trump; now how should you advance?

The 100 percent play is to cash the diamond ace, then cross to hand with the heart king and lead the diamond 10. If West follows low, play the queen. Should it score, declarer is home with an overtrick. If East wins, declarer has three entries to table (in the form of a spade, heart and club) to enable him to set up and enjoy the long diamond.

As the cards lie, though, when West shows out on the second diamond, dummy plays low and East can win the jack. But declarer has plenty of entries to take the ruffing finesse against the diamond king and nine, and eventually discard his club on the established diamond.

Paradoxically, if West had led his singleton diamond, this would have been an extremely easy play to find because the risk of the 5-1 diamond break would have been foremost in declarer’s mind.

Bid with the aces

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

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