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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff

Opening Lead: ♥7

Against your contract of three no-trump, West leads the heart seven to East's queen. You hold up your ace to cut the defenders' communications and win the third round, throwing a spade from dummy. You need three club tricks, but cannot afford to let West obtain the lead.

The normal play when you are missing both the 10 and nine is to lead to the jack, your best shot at four tricks, but here a first-round finesse of the club jack is not best. The point is that West would eventually win the lead by taking a trick with his remaining club K-10 and defeat you by cashing out his hearts. (You would also go down when West started with club K-9-6, provided East unblocked the club 10 under dummy’s jack.)

Since West is the danger hand, you should lead the club queen on the first round, planning to run that card. Here West will cover with the king, won with dummy’s ace. It will then be a relatively simple matter to return to your hand with a diamond and lead to the club eight, ducking into the safe hand.

Incidentally, a sensible play for three tricks in isolation, if you weren’t concerned with keeping West off lead, would be to cash the club ace first. If either the club 10 or nine falls, make your next play on the assumption that this card may be a singleton. For example, if East drops the club nine, you should lead to the club queen next.

Lead with the aces

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

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