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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff

Opening Lead: ♦10

Some of the most important techniques in bridge are those that assist you in establishing a suit. In today's deal, how would you play the spade slam when West leads the diamond 10? The key is to make full use of the available entries to dummy.

If spades break, you are home; what if they do not? West may have led from the diamond king but it is no more than a 50-50 chance. And rightly or wrongly, many players regard leading from a king as a sin comparable to coveting one’s neighbor’s ox. A rather better chance is that clubs will break 4-3 and that you can set up a second discard in the suit.

You rise with dummy’s diamond ace and lead low to your spade ace. You then unblock the club ace and return to dummy with the spade king, discovering that East holds a trump trick. All follow to the club king, on which you discard one of your diamond losers. You then ruff a club, and when you return to dummy with a top heart and lead a low club, there is nothing that East can do. If he ruffs the losing club with his master trump, you will discard your last diamond loser and claim the balance. No doubt East will prefer to discard on the fourth round of clubs. You ruff in hand, return to dummy with a heart, and lead the club jack. Whether or not East ruffs, you will throw your last diamond and make the slam.

Lead with the aces

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

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