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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff

Opening Lead: ♦9

How would you tackle today's spade game when West leads the diamond nine?

The original declarer did not give the matter sufficient consideration, and as a result, plunged to defeat. He won the diamond lead with dummy’s ace and finessed the spade queen. West won with the king and played another diamond. After cashing two winners in the suit, East tried his luck with a fourth round of diamonds. With the trumps lying as they were, this promoted West’s spade nine to the setting trick. Do you see how declarer could have avoided this trump promotion?

To kill the entry to the East hand, you need to duck the first round of diamonds. You can then win the second round with dummy’s ace and finesse in trump, and West can no longer reach the East hand for a trump promotion. There is absolutely no risk in ducking the first diamond. If the diamond-nine opening lead happened to be a singleton, West would be ruffing a loser after a diamond return.

Holding up an ace to break the defenders’ communications is a familiar idea when playing in no-trump, but it can be just as valuable in a suit contract. The purpose is exactly the same — to cut the communications between the defenders.

Incidentally, you must also resist the temptation to try to cash the top hearts early. There is no need to rush to take your discard — it can wait till after trumps are drawn.

Bid with the aces

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

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