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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff

Opening Lead: ♦J

In today's deal South started low, then felt obliged to make one exploratory call above game, getting him to the Goldilocks level: not too low, not too high, just right for a newspaper article! North's four-spade bid simply suggested a minimum with four trumps, while his five-heart bid showed the ace or king, while denying a diamond control.

Against five spades West was not challenged to lead the diamond jack. The defenders cashed two rounds of the suit and led a third, and declarer made the natural play of ruffing high, protecting against a possible overruff and prepared to claim his 11 tricks. However, when he led a top trump from hand and found the 5-0 trump break, a reassessment was required

South found the solution when he cashed the two top clubs, then played the heart ace and king to put the lead in dummy in a five-card ending where dummy had the J-10-9 of spades and a high and low heart, while declarer had the trump Q-6 and three low clubs.

At this point declarer led the low heart from dummy, giving East a problem to which there was no solution. If he ruffed high, declarer would overruff and draw trump, taking trick 13 with the master heart. If he ruffed low or discarded, declarer would score his small trump and take the last four tricks with a high crossruff.

Bid with the aces

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

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