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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♣K
North-South did well to reach an excellent game contract with their limited values in this deal, but South spoilt the effect by missing a logical point in the play.
The key to reaching game was South’s optimistic decision to reverse into two hearts. Over North’s (forcing by agreement) three-diamond call, South took a shot at five diamonds. West led the club king, on which East signaled with his queen.
South now decided there was nothing to the play. He required either the spade finesse to be right, or East to hold the heart ace. Accordingly he drew trump and took a losing spade finesse. Later he lost two hearts and so went one down.
South commented after the hand that he could have made the hand by leading a low spade from dummy to his king, but that there was no reason why East would be more likely to hold the spade king than West.
True enough — but South had overlooked something critical. West, who was marked with both top clubs from the play to the first trick, might also hold the spade king but could hardly hold the heart ace as well, for he had dealt and passed.
So leading a low spade from dummy after drawing one round of trump was the right way to play the suit. If East had the king, South would obtain two discards on the spades, and if West turned up with the king, it would have been certain that East would hold the heart ace.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 3♦
When the two opponents have each bid a suit, a sequence like this implies worry about hearts, not clubs. Maybe your partner has three small hearts? In any event, since you can't bid no-trump or suggest a partial stopper, you can bid three diamonds to say where you live, and let partner make the next move.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
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