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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♦K
In today's deal North's well-positioned aces sitting over the opposing bidder, plus his superior spot-cards and his mild spade-fit gave him just enough to raise two spades to three. Now South has enough to accept the game-try.
Against four spades, West will lead the diamond king and ace, then play his low diamond for East to trump with the spade two.
When East leads back the club six at trick four, South must win the club ace, then take a spade finesse, simultaneously finding the good and bad news. When he has digested the potential problems of the deal, he has two possible winning plays. Either he must lead the heart five or nine and immediately finesse dummy’s 10, or he can lead the heart king to dummy’s ace, in either case building himself the critical extra entry to dummy.
The point is that when West shows out of spades, South should know he needs three further entries to dummy: two to finesse spades, and one to reach the good diamond (after trumps are drawn) for a club discard. The only possible entries are in hearts, so West must be played for the heart jack. Three entries can be maneuvered — but not if South starts by leading a low heart to a high honor in dummy. If South does that, West can then defeat the contract by playing the heart jack when South leads low on the second round.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 2♠
The simple raise of an opening bid should go up to 10 points. But with the right 10-count, you may opt to treat your hand as a balanced limit-raise. Is this hand good enough? Not in my book. The balanced shape and weak trumps argue for caution, despite decent intermediates and two aces. Plus-scores are good; let partner decide if he wants to go past the two-level.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
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