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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♦10
North was quietly confident when he put down his dummy, but the contract of four spades turned out to be far harder than he might have expected.
West led the diamond 10 and declarer appreciated that so long as spades broke no worse than 3-1, his maximum losers would be one trump, one heart and one club — or possibly two trumps and one heart if diamonds were ruffed, while he attempted to shed a club on the diamond ace.
The lead was won in dummy, and declarer decided to take a safety play. Instead of cashing the spade ace or finessing in that suit, he led a low trump to the queen to protect against West’s having all four trumps. East could not go in with his king or he would lose his second trump trick, so he was forced to duck. South’s queen held the trick, but when West showed out on the spade ace, two trump losers seemed inevitable.
So to make his game, declarer needed to eliminate his club loser. Fortunately, the careful play in trumps had made that easy enough. South cashed the spade ace and now needed a second diamond to stand up, which it did. East ruffed dummy’s third diamond and returned a club, but to no avail. Declarer rose with the ace; then the diamond ace allowed dummy’s club to depart. East could ruff in again, but the contract was safe.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 3♦
It is important to have agreements about what is forcing and what is weak after a reverse. It makes sense to use the cheaper of two no-trump and fourth suit to show a weak hand, a rebid of responder's long suit as a one-round force, not necessarily strong, and a raise of either of partner's suits as forcing. So bid three diamonds now to set trump as early as possible.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
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