The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♠J
This hand, submitted to the Australian Gold Coast bulletins by Sue Lusk, demonstrated nice technique by her brother Bruce Neill from the Teams Qualifying event.
South had declared four spades on the spade-jack lead, which seems to be a moderately helpful start for declarer. East had won the spade ace and continued with spades.
Declarer could now have crossed to dummy and played a diamond to the 10, hoping for something good in either diamonds (the diamond jack doubleton or tripleton in the East hand) or the less than likely chance that the defense would not be able to play a third trump.
Declarer, however, had a seemingly better plan. He played the club king, a club to the ace, and a club ruff. It was at this point that Neill found the best defense by not accepting the “Greek gift” of an overruff, but simply discarding a heart — a diamond discard would have been fatal.
This left declarer without recourse, since if he played on diamonds, it would allow the defense to play the third trump, leaving declarer with one spade loser, one heart loser and two diamond losers.
Had West overruffed, he would have been endplayed to lead hearts or diamonds, either of which would give declarer a trick. Declarer would run the heart around to his queen, while an overruff and diamond shift would allow declarer to score two diamond tricks and a diamond ruff. Moreover, South could pitch his losing heart on the eventually established fifth club.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 2♥
Nothing is ideal here, but my best guess would be to jump to two hearts, natural and invitational. The range for this call is typically 9-11, but your extra shape argues for an aggressive call. Since you could easily make game facing a balanced minimum opener with nothing in diamonds, you need to do more than make a simple call of one heart, and you may always get clubs in later.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
