Hand of the day #662
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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♥J
In today's deal from the Yeh Tournament, both tables reached five clubs, Fredrik Nystrom from the South seat after West had doubled a diamond call, Alfredo Versace from an uninformative auction from the North seat. Versace received a heart lead and simply played ace and another spade. Then he played a trump to hand and the East won the ace and played another trump. Versace ruffed a spade in dummy, and discovered he had two spade losers now since he was out of trump and had nowhere to park them. Down one.
Nystrom, part of the Swedish team that is currently holder of the Olympiad title, received the lead of the heart jack. He won in hand, played the ace, and ruffed a spade. Next he took the heart king and ruffed a heart.
When East followed with the heart queen Nystrom drew the sensible inference that West’s presumed length in the red-suits would leave him with short spades. So Nystrom ruffed the next spade with the club king.
Had both opponents followed, he would have played on trumps to make 11 or 12 tricks. As it was, when the bad spade break came to light, declarer ruffed a diamond to dummy, then ruffed a spade with the club eight. His second chance came when West could not overruff. Now declarer simply lost the long spade and the club ace.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 3NT
If you play New Minor Forcing, you have the option of checking back for a 5-3 spade fit, but my instincts are simply to raise directly to three no-trump, giving away less information to the opponents about your shape and not giving the opponents the chance to double an artificial call.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
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