The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♠Q
At the Gold Coast tournament, held in Brisbane, Australia, there were not only Open and Senior events, but also Novice and Intermediate events, with everyone playing the same deals at the same time. Altogether, about 500 teams were competing simultaneously in a single room at the Gold Coast conference center.
The winners of the intermediate teams were confronted in the finals with this problem both in the bidding and the play. Each table got the auction right, playing the small slam from the South seat after learning that the trump king was missing. At one table the opening lead was a club, solving that suit for declarer. The trump finesse was offside, but the result was a straightforward plus 980 for the losing finalists.
Against Alan Currie, the declarer for the winning team, the opening lead was the spade queen. Currie won the spade ace, then played the heart jack from dummy, going up with his ace. He next played the diamond ace and a diamond to the king, followed by the spade king and a spade ruff. He now exited with a heart and claimed the rest of the tricks, not caring which opponent won the trick.
No matter whether it was East or West, that person would have to play a club, solving South’s problem in that suit, or play another suit, allowing him to ruff in hand and discard a club from dummy. Either way, he had 12 tricks in a well-played contract.
Lead with the aces
Answer: A♠
Declarer has followed an auction that implies he is not interested in playing no-trump. The most likely explanation is that he has nothing in spades. Lead the spade ace and decide (assuming you are still on lead at the end of trick one) which major to play next.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
