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: ♠Q
In today's auction North cue-bids at his first turn to show a limit raise in hearts, and South has enough to jump to game, despite some concerns about his kings being badly placed because of the overcall.
On the lead of the spade queen, South will have to play carefully to make. Of course, he could succeed by playing East for the trump queen, but there is a far better line. South wins the spade king and ace and ruffs the spade loser in hand. Then he leads the club queen to knock out the club ace; West is forced to win and can only exit with another club. South wins the club jack, cashes the heart ace, and then takes the club king. (On a bad day West might ruff the third club, but if he did, declarer could reasonably hope he would have no more trumps left and thus be compelled to lead away from the diamond ace or to provide a ruff-sluff by playing spades.)
As it is, when the club king lives, the key play follows. South leads a second trump from dummy and, when East follows with a low heart, finesses the jack. If the finesse wins, South is safe; he must give up two diamonds but has 10 tricks. If the finesse loses, West will be out of hearts and must open up the diamonds or give South a ruff and discard. Either way, South is home free.
Bid with the aces
Answer: Double
There is no clear-cut action here, since you really have no idea if you want to defend on this hand or find partner's five-card suit if he has one. My guess would be to double for takeout and let partner pick a trump suit. Even if your partner bids a weak suit, he can surely score his small trumps by ruffing diamonds in his hand.
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.
