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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♣4
The auction in today's deal featured a convention called Puppet Stayman. After North asked for four- and five-card majors, South's response denied a five-card major but promised at least one four-card major. North now bid three hearts — the major he did not have — so that if South held four spades, the strong hand would become declarer. South could now jump to four spades to end the auction.
When West leads the club four, South calls for dummy’s 10. Plan the defense. The knee-jerk reaction for East is to insert the jack, to ensure two club tricks if partner has led away from the queen. But is partner likely to have led from queen-third — a dangerous lead around to the hand that is known to hold at least half the points in the pack?
More importantly, there is no sure way of beating the contract if partner has the club queen, as you can see 17 points in your hand plus dummy. So if partner has the club queen, he can have no other significant values, and there will be just three tricks for the defense.
Accordingly, you must hope that the four was a singleton. Rise with the ace and give partner a ruff. And, to ensure that West returns a heart rather than a diamond to secure a second ruff, carefully play back the club jack, a heavy suit-preference signal for hearts, the higher-ranking of the remaining plain suits.
Lead with the aces
Answer: ♦9
East's auction shows 18-20 or so with a diamond stopper, but it does not guarantee an especially powerful holding in that suit. You really have no special clue as to your partner's shape, but leading the diamond nine looks as good as anything — and if it is wrong, you could hardly be blamed!
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
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