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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♥8
On this deal from the 1999 Cavendish, Michael Seamon found an excellent line to bring home three no-trump. After an informative auction David Berkowitz led the heart eight, and Seamon thought for a long while, then put up dummy's 10 and ducked East's king.
Larry Cohen continued the attack on hearts, and Seamon won the trick, then advanced the diamond eight. When Berkowitz ducked, Seamon let it run and subsequently finessed again in diamonds to bring home nine tricks. Should Berkowitz have worked out to block the diamond suit by covering the diamond eight? If his partner had started with the singleton diamond nine, this would not have been a success. But I suppose declarer’s pause at trick one might have persuaded Berkowitz that this was precisely what declarer was planning to do — and if so, that should perhaps have directed him toward the correct defense.
By contrast, when Norberto Bocchi and Giorgio Duboin defended three no-trump, Bocchi led a club. Declarer had to duck this, and now East shifted to the heart jack. (Note that if East plays a low heart, declarer lets it run to dummy’s 10, but the shift to the jack effectively surrounds dummy’s holding.)
Declarer covered the heart jack with the queen, and next dislodged the club ace himself. Back came a second heart, then the diamond eight, covered by Bocchi, and now three no-trump had to go down.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 3♦
Some calls are made easier with the use of conventional calls; some are about judgment, not system. Here I would like to be able to show a spade raise with a diamond suit that I want partner to lead. If you play a convention called McCabe, then you can bid three diamonds to show precisely that. A jump to four diamonds would be diamonds and a spade fit (the same hand, but with the spade five, not the heart five).
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
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