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: ♠K

In today's deal the three little pigs all found their way to a six-heart slam on a top spade lead from West. The pig who made his house out of straw won in dummy, cashed the heart ace, then went to the diamond ace and took a heart finesse. West won his heart queen to play back a spade, forcing declarer to ruff in dummy. Now, with clubs not breaking, declarer could no longer bring home 12 tricks whether he drew the last trump or not.

By contrast, the little pig who made his house out of wood cashed the ace and king of hearts, and when they split, he snorted smugly to himself and turned his attention to clubs. Even though West could ruff away one of his winners, he was safe.

In the post-mortem the pigs were arguing about whose line was best. The third little pig who made his house out of stone, pointed out that he had found a line that guarded against either a 4-1 break in hearts or clubs (or both) and lost only if West had the singleton heart queen. He had won the opening lead and taken an immediate trump finesse.

When it lost, he ruffed the spade return, drew trumps, and set up the clubs with the diamond ace as an entry. Had the heart jack held, the heart ace and king would have followed, and then he could have played on clubs, with two side-entries to dummy available had he needed them.

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 ▶