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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♠7
When declarer is running a suit, the advice given by bridge teachers is to keep length parity with dummy, unless the bidding or play has suggested otherwise. A defender should also make every effort to tell his partner which suit to keep.
Against three no-trump West led the fourth-highest of his longest and strongest suit, the spade seven. Declarer rose with dummy’s 10, more in hope than expectation, and East covered this with the queen. South ducked this trick, and also played low on the second spade. West carefully overtook the spade eight, but how should he plan the play thereafter?
West has two opportunities to clarify where his re-entry is located. He can win the second spade with the jack rather than the king, and at trick three should return his lowest spade, the six, as a suit-preference signal for the lower-ranking of the red suits. (He could hardly be interested in a club return with those clubs on view in the dummy.) Had West held the heart ace instead of the diamond ace, he should win the second spade with the king and play back the jack.
After taking the spade ace, declarer will continue with four rounds of clubs. Ignoring the principle of matching dummy’s length, East should then discard a diamonds on the third round of clubs, and another diamond on the fourth, retaining all four hearts. Declarer can then come to no more than eight tricks.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 1♠
Do not hesitate to make a one-spade overcall, even if your chances of declaring the final contract are relatively low. With a chunky suit and a strong preference for a spade lead rather than a heart lead, you should take any relatively safe opportunity to get into the auction, no matter what the form of scoring or vulnerability.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
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