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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♦9
Paul Trent was one of the top players in the country in the '60s. His wife, Sandy, may be less well-known but is no less accomplished, as this deal from the second qualifying session of last summer's von Zedtwitz Life Master Pairs demonstrates. Sandy was South.
Against the club slam, West led the diamond nine to the king and Sandy’s ace. She played a trump to the queen and ace, won the diamond return to test trumps, and found the bad news.
Now she cashed the spade ace and king, carefully discarding the heart ace. She ruffed a spade to hand, led a heart to dummy’s 10, then ruffed another spade to play the heart queen from her hand to dummy’s king. Next she advanced the heart jack, prepared to overruff if East could ruff in. Whether East could follow or not, his sure trump trick was about to vanish. At the table Sandy could discard her diamond when East followed suit, and the lead was in dummy at trick 12 for a trump coup.
Note that the defenders would have probably beaten the slam on a spade lead. Declarer’s normal line of play is to win the ace and play a trump (though yes, ruffing a spade is probably better, to prepare for the possible trump reduction against the 4-1 break). East can take the first trump and return a trump, dislodging a critical entry from dummy. After that, declarer would be unable to make the contract.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 2NT/3NT depends on the game format.
The question here is whether to drive to game because of your intermediates or to consult partner. At teams, if vulnerable, I would bid game. At any other form of scoring I would only invite game. At matchpoints, try to go plus and not risk thin games. At teams, if nonvulnerable, you do not need to stretch to 50-50 games.
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.
