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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♠K
Years ago a charity bridge event was held at Mosimann’s Restaurant in London in aid of the Variety Club. The total raised for the charity was £30,000.
On the morning of the event Zia Mahmood was sick and couldn’t play. His replacement, Nicola Smith filled in, and she and her partner won their section. The following slam caused her no problem. While the play should be straightforward, it floored a number of players.
Although South has only 10 high-card points, his hand is strong in distribution and well worth an opening bid. (A two diamond opening would be wildly misleading.) After that start, there would be no stopping North, and the final contract would be six diamonds after the obligatory use of Blackwood.
On a spade king lead, declarer needs to set up dummy’s hearts, using trumps as entries. The simplest line is to win the lead, play a trump to dummy and ruff a heart, play another trump to dummy and ruff another heart. Now ruff a spade and try the ace and king of hearts (discarding a spade and a club). If hearts break, declarer can claim the rest. On the actual layout declarer ruffs another heart, setting up dummy’s 10, which he can reach with a second spade ruff. The remaining heart winner allows declarer to discard a second club, and the slam is made without needing to guess which opponent holds the club ace.
Lead with the aces
Answer: ♦6
The choice of leads is between the singleton diamond and a fourth highest heart. I'm going for the singleton lead — now the route to the target of four tricks is somewhat easier to predict, while finding partner with good hearts is not necessarily sufficient to beat the game.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
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