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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff

Opening Lead: ♥J

Today's deal sees two different defenders at work. Both succeeded in defeating their opponents' game, but in very different ways.

At each table South was declarer in four spades when North treated his hand as worth a jump raise facing his partner’s free bid of one spade. Of course in this auction South had promised five spades since he would have doubled one heart with only four spades.

The defense started with West leading the heart jack, and East overtaking to play clubs. At one table East found the best technical defense when he shifted to the club jack. South covered with the queen, and West won and returned the club nine. Now, whatever declarer did, he had to lose two more club tricks.

In the other room East shifted to the club king at trick two, and when it held the trick, he continued with a low club. South looked at him suspiciously. Was East trying to pull a fast one, with an original club holding of ace-king-third, or did he have his actual holding and had given up on the legitimate way to defeat the contract?

In the end, South guessed wrong and went up with the queen, letting West take his ace and cash third club trick for the defense.

So which defender followed the better line? It is hard to say. Had East held the club nine or eight in addition to the king-jack, the technical play of shifting to the club jack would surely have been right.

Bid with the aces

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

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