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: ♦3
When England play the Netherlands it is always an enjoyable encounter for both teams. The Dutch speak English as well as we do, and their exciting bidding makes for interesting auctions.
In Beijing the English Under-21 team faced the Netherlands in the round robin towards the end when England were securing their place in the top two and the Dutch were struggling to make it into the top eight.
On the deal below it was the English pair who created the swing, with a calculated risk in the bidding.
Ed Jones, sitting East for England, opened one diamond after two passes and the Dutch South, perhaps surprisingly, overcalled one no-trump. Tom Paske, West, made a disciplined pass, and North transferred to spades by bidding two hearts. When South completed the transfer by bidding two spades Tom sprang to life and doubled for take-out. East now had a tricky bid to make but he reasoned that his partner would not have four diamonds since he had not supported the suit, and that consequently his A-K-Q would pull their weight in defense. So he decided to pass the double, converting it into penalties.
Tom kicked off with a diamond, and after cashing three rounds Ed switched to the club jack, to the queen and king, and Tom returned a club. South could now draw trump (losing two tricks to Ed’s ace and 10 in the process) but he had nowhere to put his fourth club and ended up losing three diamonds, two clubs and two trumps for two down and 500 points to England. Since the other table had played peacefully in three diamonds and gone two down that was a good swing of 12 IMPs to England.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 2♠
This is a forcing auction, and you can bid two spades over two hearts without showing any values, as opposed to spade length. Your partner may hope for more but he has no reason to expect it (though if you had bid three clubs here it would be a second negative, and you might take that call with five small spades).
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.
