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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff

Opening Lead: ♠5

There is a big difference between needing tricks from a suit, in which case you grab what you can get, and trying to avoid losing too many tricks in that suit.

Against three no-trump West led the spade five, and although when East played the king declarer has two sure tricks in the suit, this gives him only seven winners. In order to get home he needs to set up his diamond suit, which should produce three tricks once the ace and king have been knocked out. Three diamonds, two clubs and three heart tricks are eight, so only one trick is needed from the spade suit.

What South needs to guard against is the spade suit producing three tricks for the defense. If spades break 4-3, all is well, but if they break 5-2, declarer must exhaust East’s spades before he wins the first diamond honor, and West will surely do his best to arrange that he does. (If East has both diamond honors, there is no problem; if West has both, there is no hope. But if they divide, then taking insurance at the cost of a trick ensures the contract.)

Therefore declarer must duck the spade king and win the spade return, so that when East is in with the diamond ace, he has no further spade to play, and the spade 10 in dummy acts as a guard against the run of the suit when West gets in. Now the defense can only come to two spade and two diamond tricks.

Bid with the aces

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

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