Hand of the day #620
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: ♠5
North-South used the fact that this was rubber bridge to justify their exuberant bidding to six spades. A favorable lead seemed to give declarer good chances, but the bad heart break required South to play extremely well to justify his optimism.
After winning the trump lead in hand, declarer cashed the heart ace, crossed to dummy with a trump, and ruffed a low heart. Then he went to dummy with another trump and ruffed one more heart.
When West showed out, this appeared to put the final nail in the coffin for South’s contract. But declarer was quick to spot that he was still in business because East, who guarded the hearts, might well have at least two of the missing club honors. Declarer drew the last trump and followed with three rounds of diamonds, ending in dummy. This left him with three clubs in hand, and dummy with the king-jack of hearts and the club queen. Meanwhile East had to make a discard from the Q-10 of hearts and the club A-J.
Since a heart or the club jack would be immediately fatal, East made a good try by discarding his ace. But there was no joy — declarer followed with the club queen, pinning East’s jack. If West won, he could only lead a club into South’s 10-8 tenace. If West ducked, then the heart king would be South’s 12th trick. This is a fine example of the squeeze known as a “winkle.”
Bid with the aces
Answer: 3♠
The important thing to do here is to suggest diamond support and values, with short spades. You might also want to emphasize this feature of your hand before the auction gets out of control. (You expect to hear a lot of spades to your left on the next round.) The choice is between a splinter jump to three spades or a void-showing call of four spades. I marginally prefer the former.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
You can now play the hand of the day on BBO+ and compare how you get on with the players in the article.
I was thinking 4d on the bidding. 3s was my 2nd choice but it has a flaw, it allows LHO who's probably very long in spades to double 3 spades showing extra good spades. Where as if we directly bid 4d (it's weak but if partner is max with good shape they might still bid 5d, partner didn't start with a double so capped out at roughtly 18 and opps have implied some values so even the 16-18 range is rather unlikely 12-14/15 is FAR more likely), LHO doesn't have the option of showing spades unless they directly commit to 4s. In which case if partner had 4 good spades the could double for penalty and I would leave it in. If partner couldn't double 4s then with a void I can safely guess 5d which would be correct most of the time when there's little spade wastage.
Why should West hold only clubs in the three-card ending?