Hand of the day #557
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: ♠9
Today's deal is a tester. Against your slam of six spades West leads a trump — which certainly feels like a good start for the defenders, though in fact a low heart lead would have been fatal. With one diamond and six spade tricks, you need to score all five of your clubs, and that simply requires 4-3 clubs. But can you improve on those chances?
The answer is yes, but the play must be precise. Win the spade queen, and when both opponents follow, you lead a diamond to the ace, a club to the ace, and take a diamond ruff. This is followed by a low club ruff (do NOT cash the club king) and the sight of the club jack should alert you to the possibilities of a bad break in that suit.
A diamond ruff, and a low club ruff disclose the bad news. A diamond ruff high and the spade ace reduces everyone to four cards. You have a trump, a heart and the K-10 of clubs, dummy and West have four hearts, and East is down to the doubleton heart ace and the guarded club queen. On the last trump if East pitches a club, you cash two winners; if he throws a small heart away, you lead a heart and endplay him. And if he pitches his heart ace, you lead a heart to the nine and claim, whoever wins the trick!
Bid with the aces
Answer: 3♠
Three clubs here is a forcing call, asking you to assess your suitability for the suit game or no-trump. Your hand is minimum with no diamond stop so a simple rebid of three spades seems best to me. With ace-fourth of diamonds and a singleton club, a three-diamond bid would make sense, but not here.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
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ok three spades but 2s in the pevios round of bidding is wrong! I mean wirh 2s i guaranteee at least 4 spades. I should bid 2D.
Bid 3 spades