Hand of the day #570
You can now play the hand of the day on BBO+ and compare how you get on with the...
You can now play the hand of the day on BBO+ and compare how you get on with the players in the article.
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♥10
In today's deal, West leads the heart 10 against what turns out to be a fairly shaky no-trump slam. (Maybe a jump to five no-trump by North to offer a choice of slams would have been more sensible.) East wins the heart ace and returns the three to your king. What is your plan to make your contract?
Obviously, you need East to have the club king to have any chance of making your contract. If he has that card and clubs are 3-2, then almost any plan will succeed. When he has four clubs headed by the king, you will need West to have at least two diamonds, but suppose that West has four diamonds.
The simple line is to win the second heart, lead a diamond to the king, then take a club finesse. When you next cash the diamond ace and lead a diamond toward dummy, West meanly puts in the 10, robbing you of an entry to dummy. Now you need clubs to split 3-2, since you have no more entries to the board.
A better line is to win the diamond ace at trick three, then lead the diamond jack and overtake it if West follows suit. You take a club finesse and are left with the Q-9 of diamonds in dummy facing two small diamonds in hand. Whatever the original lie of the diamonds, you can now insure two further entries to dummy to allow you to take two more finesses in clubs and bring home your slam.
Bid with the aces
Answer: Pass
The answer here is more about partnership agreement than judgment. I suggest you adopt the idea that your partner in fourth chair can bid any suit or no-trump naturally, so a call of two clubs or two hearts would be natural. To show the unbid suits, jump to two no-trump, or double with more high cards and less shape. Here it feels right to pass two hearts, not raise to three hearts.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
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I don t understand/know this way of playing