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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♣5
This week's deals all come from the European Championships, which were held in Dublin, Ireland, and resulted in a win for Monaco.
Today’s deal came from the very first match of the event. While the other members of the Norwegian Seniors Team had played for Norway before, this was the first international appearance for Johnny Holmbakken. He rapidly placed himself in the hot seat against Italy, and on the very first board of the match too. I would not recommend his decision to overcall here, but that’s what he did, ending up in three diamonds.
Holmbakken won East’s club jack with the ace and ran the diamond nine to East’s ace. East cashed a club and exited with a diamond to the jack. A heart to the nine and jack was followed by the heart ace and another heart, which declarer ruffed. A club was ruffed in dummy, and a diamond put declarer in hand with the queen. Holmbakken was sure that West held the spade queen and played accordingly, putting the jack on the table! South covered, and dummy’s king won. Now came the trumps.
The last diamond squeezed East in the black suits, and declarer made the contract via two spade tricks when East kept his club. A menace transfer and squeeze – what a nice debut!
Lead with the aces
Answer: ♣J
The suit partner is most likely to hold is spades, but of course he had the opportunity to overcall and did not. With a safe club sequence to lead from, it is pretty much a toss-up as to which lead you make. My vote, narrowly, is for a top club, but I can see both sides of the argument. Give me a better small spade spot, and I would be convinced it was right to lead this suit.
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.
