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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♦Q
Dummy did not have much to offer in this deal, but declarer wrapped up 10 tricks in his spade contract with seeming ease. In fact, West had missed a defensive point that might well have eluded almost everybody.
West led the diamond queen against four spades, and, after winning in dummy, declarer finessed the heart queen successfully, cashed the ace, and led a low heart. West was quick to rush in with his trump jack and followed by forcing South with a diamond.
Now the fourth round of hearts was ruffed in dummy with the nine, and the spade eight led and run when it was not covered. At this point another trump lead from dummy finished matters, and declarer made game with the loss of just two spades and a club.
Hard as it may be to see, West’s ruff of the third round of hearts was premature. Say he discards a diamond instead and allows dummy to ruff. Declarer comes back to hand with the club ace and plays a fourth heart. It is only now that West ruffs with his spade jack and plays a diamond. With no entry to dummy, South must lose two more tricks to East’s remaining trump holding, as well as a club.
It was certainly a difficult defense to find at the table, and you may need to work through the play in detail before you are convinced — just as I did!
Bid with the aces
Answer: 1♣
In third seat it must be right to open this hand, but I'm not sure whether to open one club or one heart. With a one-bid hand, as here, I will open a four-card major, but this suit does not really qualify — give me the jack as well and I would open one heart. So one club it is. As a general policy, open in third seat whenever you have close to opening values or a suit you want partner to lead.
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.
