The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♥K
Today’s hand features a frozen suit combination – neither defender can broach the suit without losing a trick in the process.
After West leads the heart king against four spades, you have a heart and a club to lose. If you can avoid a trump loser, then you can afford to concede a diamond trick; if not, then you need an endplay and some good luck. So, win the lead, play a spade to the king, and a spade back to your ace, West showing out.
Now play a second heart. West wins the queen and exits with a heart, East following. You win in hand (discarding a club from dummy) to play the club king. West wins the ace and exits with the club jack, which you win with dummy’s queen.
Because you have three certain losers, you need to avoid losing a diamond. The only way you might achieve that is if East began with king-fourth and West with the doubleton jack, and one of them was forced to open up the suit.
You need to play East for his actual hand, one that is not so unlikely given the bidding. After all, West rates to have a shapely hand to have come in over a strong no-trump at this vulnerability. So now you must give East his trump trick by playing queen and another spade. East wins his king and tries a low diamond, which goes to West’s jack and dummy’s queen. But now you can finesse against East’s king and make your contract.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 1NT
There are three plausible directions in which to take this hand. The simplest, which I prefer, is to advance with one no-trump, which describes the basic nature and values of the hand. A one-spade bid would typically show five or more; a raise in diamonds is safe, but less constructive; and partner may not expect quite as many values. Equally, a cue-bid raise should be a better hand for offense than this.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
