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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♠K
These days Ely Culbertson is regarded with a somewhat jaundiced eye. Players remember the tales of his histrionics, but forget that he was both a trailblazer in the theory of the game and a fine card-player at a time when there were no textbooks to teach you technique. He was credited with defending today's deal.
The bidding may look strange to a modern eye, but the call of four no-trump showed rather than asked, while the response of five no-trump promised two aces.
The partnership had nonetheless reached a slam that appeared to hinge on the heart finesse, and the auction had made this somewhat unlikely to succeed. Against six diamonds, Ely (West) led the spade king. Declarer took this with dummy’s ace, then ran six rounds of trump, throwing a heart from the table. Next came the three top clubs. Culbertson is credited with discarding the heart eight, spade 10, his four clubs, then finally the spade queen and jack. Meanwhile East discarded his club first, then two hearts and next the spade six.
Accordingly, when declarer led the spade eight from his hand at trick 11, Culbertson was able to follow low. East could win the spade nine and exit with a heart through declarer, insuring that Culbertson scored his heart king at the end.
If Culbertson had not unblocked all of his spades when discarding, he would have been thrown in to win the second spade and thus have been forced to lead from his heart king into declarer’s heart tenace.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 4♠
This is the sort of sequence where it is important to bid four spades with confidence, leaving it to the opponents to work out if you are bidding to make or are sacrificing. Yes, there are lies of the cards where you can beat four hearts if you get a diamond ruff. But against that, you rate to escape for no worse than two down in four spades. So unless the vulnerability is against you, take the save.
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.
Is the 3♠️ bid not “the Law”? If so partner may hold a very weak hand and counting losers suggests you could go 3-4 down doubled. If they are vulnerable and we are not then 4♠️ seems to work but i am not sure on how many losers you expect partner to hold. Certainly bidding promptly with confidence would lessen the odds of a double. PS Another look suggests both non-vulnerable.