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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♣J
How do you plan to play this adventurous grand slam after West leads the club jack to your ace?
If both spades and trumps are going to break 3-2, it will be easy to make 13 tricks. The best plan is to draw two rounds of trumps, then cash the spade ace and king. When all follow to the spades, draw the last trump, cash the diamond ace and ruff a spade. After throwing your remaining club on a good diamond, your hand will be high.
This approach may even allow for a recovery when East has four spades and three trumps. For example, when West shows out on the second spade but is unable to ruff the spade king, the simplest plan is to ruff a spade, return to hand with the diamond ace and ruff another spade. Then you throw a club on the diamond king, ruff a club with the trump 10 and cash the trump queen. Your last two cards will be high spades.
What would happen if trumps broke 4-1? Then you would need East either to hold four hearts and three spades, or a singleton heart jack and two spades. In either eventuality, after cashing the diamond ace you would be able to ruff the spades good, throw a club on the diamond king, and if that held, draw trumps and claim the balance.
Just for the record, the likelihood of both majors splitting has only about a 50 percent probability.
Bid with the aces
Answer: Transfer ♦
Different partnerships use different methods over one no-trump, some transferring into diamonds via a two spade call, some via two no-trump, some via three clubs. I am not going to tell you which is best, but I strongly encourage you to make the transfer here; this hand will almost always play much better in diamonds than in no-trump. The bid does not imply values, just a long suit.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
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