Hand of the day #558
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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♠Q
South was puzzled why his result of down one in four hearts had cost his team 10 IMPs. When prompted, North, who had stoically watched the play as dummy, took pains to explain.
Against four hearts West had led a top spade, and declarer won this in dummy, then took the heart finesse. It lost to the king and back came another spade, won in hand by South. Declarer drew trump in one further round then exited with the spade nine. His hope was that West held both minor-suit kings and would be endplayed. But West could exit safely in diamonds, and did so. Declarer ended one down, having lost a trick in each suit.
As North pointed out, if the trump finesse was right at trick two, it would still be right later on in the deal. But you may not want to take the finesse at all if other factors make it irrelevant.
The best play is to win the initial spade lead in hand, not in dummy, and play a club toward the queen. West must take the king or lose it, and will presumably return another spade. You can win this in dummy and cash the club queen.
Now you don’t take any chances. You play a trump to your ace, then cash the club ace and discard dummy’s losing spade. After that, you can draw the outstanding trumps and will have 10 tricks on top. Your only losers are one club, one diamond and one trump.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 1NT
One of the aspects of the modern game that bears repeating is that when you hold a 16-count and approximately balanced shape, as here, it is hard to find a way to describe the hand unless you open one no-trump. It is not perfect, but it is better than opening one heart and guessing how to upgrade or downgrade the hand at your next turn.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
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Either works but more danger from 3rd round diamond ruff
I would like an answer to the same question.
hand of the day : 545
sir may i know the reason 4h contract declarer can win in hand spade lead and ace of diamond and back a diamond if west hold diamond king and back spade can win in dummy and discard spade from hand on queen of diamond..... which play is correct play? club to queen or diamond to queen?
The 3rd round of diamonds is marginally less likely be ruffed than the 3rd round of clubs. However, I think whoever did the write-up knew which minor suit K was onside and that was the determining factor.