You can now play the hand of the day on BBO+ and compare how you get on with the players in the article.
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♥Q
Today's deal is a constructed hand. Although the details of the deal's genesis are lost in the mists of antiquity, it is believed that it comes from a par-deal contest dating from at least 80 years ago, in which pre-composed deals were set to challenge competitors' ingenuity.
If you hadn’t seen it before, and just looked at the North-South cards, you would assume that it was extremely easy to make the grand slam on a heart lead. However, you are given fair warning that if you run any unnecessary risk, you are doomed.
The best line to bring home your contract requires you to protect against as many bad breaks as possible in all four of the suits — I will give you the tip that if East is ruffing the opening lead, you are in very poor shape!
The secret is to plan to jettison your club honors — and once you decide this is necessary, you can only make that play on winners from dummy. To void yourself of trump, you win the first heart and ruff a heart high, West discarding his club. You lead a low trump to dummy and ruff another low heart high, then draw all the trumps, discarding one top club honor on the fourth trump.
The remaining high heart from dummy takes care of your other high club, and now dummy’s five club winners can be taken without interference.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 4♦
Paradoxically, when you showed spades and diamonds and your partner indicated no interest in spades, that made your hand better for diamonds. After all, you may be able to make a slam in the minor suit by ruffing out the spades. Don't commit the hand to slam though. Bid four diamonds, guaranteeing slam interest and a fifth diamond, and hope partner can move on from there.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
If you’re a BBO+ member, you can now play the Hand of the Day directly on BBO as part of your membership benefits.
Go to the BBO+ section, select BBO+ Games and Events, then click Play Today’s Deal to give it a try and compare your result with the players featured in the article.
