Hand of the day #620
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: ♣K
In Scotland's match against the Netherlands in the European Championships, Derek Diamond opened with two hearts to show a weak two-suiter reached four hearts in two bids, and froze the opponents out altogether.
When Jan Jansma led the club king, Louk Verhees contributed the nine, using upside-down signals. With declarer known to have 10 cards in two suits, he was trying to show his five-card suit. (By contrast the play of the club queen would have suggested a high card in spades.)
When Jansma misread the position and played another club, Diamond ruffed, then played a heart to the jack. Verhees took his ace and returned his second trump. Declarer continued with ace and another diamond. In with the king, East returned a spade. South was sure, from the lack of a spade switch at trick two, that West held the king, so he played low and brought home his contract.
If West switches to a diamond at trick two, he should defeat the contract. Does declarer have any chance? Yes – but not a good one: he does best to rise with dummy’s ace, followed by leading the heart jack, trying to look like a man about to take a trump finesse.
If this fools East into playing low, declarer can ruff out the clubs and endplay East to lead spades for him. However, East does best to rise with the heart ace, cash his diamond king, then return a trump. He thus avoids the endplay, and leaves South with a spade loser.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 2♥
Your partner's double is take-out, even though you have shown both majors already. He rates to have extras, probably without a four-card major, but you do not have to second-guess what he has. When you bid two hearts you expect him to advance with a descriptive call, be it a club bid, a cue-bid or a bid in no-trump. So leave him space to tell you what he has.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
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