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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♠9
Today's auction saw North and South disagreeing on the meaning of a jump to game in a game-forcing auction. So before we go on to look at the specifics of the deal, let's outline the two positions.
One is that in forcing auctions, jumps to game show a good fit or good suits, denying controls in the unbid suit(s). The second position is that whenever you are in a game-forcing auction, a jump to game in an agreed suit is minimum or non-slammish. This can be abbreviated to PFA or the Principle of Fast Arrival.
The first style is harder to play but makes use of the jump in the auction to show something specific, not just a minimum hand — when partner might want to explore, but can no longer do so efficiently. Popular as the second style is, I would certainly not apply it to today’s auction, where South’s jump to game should have shown a semisolid suit. (With a solid suit facing a jump shift, South would surely not have stopped short of slam.)
In any event, against six hearts, West leads the spade nine. How would you plan the play? If trumps are 4-0, you have no chance. If trumps are 2-2, it is even money whether you play to the jack or the king, so focus on when trumps break 3-1. The only 3-1 break you can deal with is the singleton queen. So you should win the lead and play a trump to your king.
Lead with the aces
Answer: ♠2
Your partner is marked with values and relatively short diamonds, but he never acted or balanced, so my guess would be that this is most likely because he has spade length. So I would lead the spade two. I might lead the 10 in a different situation, but here I think I might need that card later.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
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