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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff

Opening Lead: ♥Q

North-South were playing control responses to a two-club opening and that allowed South to identify his partner's two aces at once and drive to the grand slam in diamonds — a contract that was somewhat easier to bid than play.

After a heart lead, South was faced with a variety of chances involving his potential loser in spades or clubs. It looks simple to take the heart ace; but what do you discard from hand?

By ruffing the opening heart lead and delaying his decision whether to discard a club or a spade on the heart ace, South maintained all of his chances for the contract. After trumps failed to break 2-2 (preventing the straightforward approach of ruffing the club loser in dummy), declarer decided to set up a squeeze before resorting to the spade finesse.

Accordingly, South ran all his trump, as both opponents released hearts at every turn. Then declarer cashed the three top clubs, disclosing that East had started with four clubs.

Now in the four-card ending, South led a spade to dummy’s ace and cashed the heart ace. When East discarded a spade (holding his club guard), South discarded his club and knew to lead a spade to his king, dropping West’s queen – it could not be correct to take a spade finesse, as East’s last card was known to be a club.

Bid with the aces

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

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