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: ♣9

When this deal came up at the very end of a match between the two Italian teams in the Yeh Tournament, Italy Two had just enough of a lead over their counterparts to be able to survive today's disaster.

At one table East balanced with three hearts over South’s three diamonds. West tried three no-trump and East corrected to four clubs, raised to five. With trumps 2-1, five clubs played like a dream for plus 600.

This figured to be a nice pickup, since three diamonds doubled looked destined for down one. However, instead of leading a top spade, Valerio Giubilo went for the brass ring by leading his singleton heart, covered all around. Declarer, Agustin Madala, returned a heart, and West pitched a spade rather than a club. Declarer took the heart ace and led the heart 10, discarding his club when East, Alfredo Versace, covered. The spade jack was ducked all around, then came a spade to the ace.

Declarer now led a winning heart to pitch his last spade, and West ruffed in. South ruffed the next club and passed the diamond eight successfully, holding his trump losers to one and making plus 470.

In the ending, West had to fly with the diamond ace on the first round and play a second club to get his second trump trick since South is locked in dummy with the diamond king. Whether South leads a heart or spade from dummy, West re-promotes his diamond jack to the setting trick.

Bid with the aces

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.

Click here to play earlier Hands of the day ▶