Bookworm Bridge Conundrums #84
This conundrum was written by NICOLAS LHUISSIER and was originally pub...
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: ♦J
The opponents do not always find the best possible lead against your games, and you have to take advantage of the opportunities they give.
In today’s deal North had a difficult decision – some would raise to three spades, some might even have bounced all the way to game. But he opted for the low road today, and East wisely did not introduce a terrible suit over two spades, letting South declare four spades, giving West a blind lead.
When West led the diamond jack from the top of his sequence declarer seemed to have four inescapable losers. However, he saw a solution — he needed one defender to have a singleton spade ace and for the hearts to be blocked, with either East or West having a singleton honor or doubleton double-honor. Correctly, he took the first trick with the diamond ace, then cashed the club ace and king, before making the key play of overtaking the diamond queen with the king and ruffing a diamond. Now he exited with a trump.
East won his ace and could do no better than play the heart ace followed by the queen. This left West with no winning answer and when he allowed the queen to hold, East was forced to lead a minor suit card next. Declarer ruffed in hand with the spade eight and threw the heart 10 from dummy. He drew West’s last trump with the king and could claim his contract.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 3♥
The most sensible way to play a sequence where your partner doubles and then bids his LHO's suit is for the call to be natural. Thus your partner is showing extras and long hearts. East may well have just a four-card suit to one honor with your partner having six. But you don't have to commit yourself; raise to three hearts just in case you and your partner are not on the same wavelength.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
You can now play the hand of the day on BBO+ and compare how you get on with the players in the article.
2 spades