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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♥J
In today's deal South should make the jump rebid of three spades over his partner's response of one no-trump. He may have only a 15-count, but with 100 honors in spades and great controls, he should take the high road. With the same hand but the singleton diamond king instead of the ace, a simple rebid in spades would be equally clear.
Now it is up to you as declarer to make your game when West leads the heart jack against four spades. You try dummy’s queen but East wins the king and returns a heart. What should you do next?
You should thank your partner, for providing the spade nine to turn a contract hinging on a finesse into nearly a sure thing! You win the heart ace, play a diamond to your ace and then lead a spade to dummy’s nine. Now you play the diamond queen, discarding a heart. West will make his king, and try to cash a heart, but you can ruff his return and cross to dummy with the spade king to discard a club on the diamond jack. You end up scoring six spades, two diamonds and two aces for 10 tricks.
Just for the record, had dummy’s spade nine been the eight, your best play for the contract would have been to unblock the diamond ace, then lead a spade to the eight, hoping to find West with the spade nine. That finesse would give you the entry to dummy to set up diamonds.
Lead with the aces
Answer: ♥9
It feels right to lead a major here, and while a spade is more likely to set up tricks for your side, it is also far more likely to cost your side a trick. So I would lead a heart, and to my mind the heart nine is the least deceptive card here. If you lead a low heart, partner is likely to play you for more length or strength in the suit than this.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
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