The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♣K
Not all balanced hands in the 15-17 range need to be opened one no-trump. In today's deal, North, playing with an expert partner, elected to upgrade his hand because of his major-suit lengths and the fact that he had a pure jack-less 17-count. He also realized that it would do no harm to make his partner declarer in any major-suit contract.
Things worked out exactly as he had hoped for. South drove to slam, first asking for keycards, then for the trump queen, and North’s response showed it, together with the diamond king.
South received a top-club lead against his six-heart slam, which he won in dummy. When trumps broke 3-2, South drew them all, cashed off four rounds of spades, and exited with the losing club to compel the defenders to shift to diamonds.
Had West won the second club trick, the hand would have been over; but it was East who took the trick. That player did the best he could when he shifted to a low diamond. South appreciated that he could delay the finesse against the diamond queen for one round. He carefully inserted the eight, and when that forced the queen, declarer could claim the balance of the tricks. Had West been able to follow with the nine or 10, declarer would have won the trick in dummy and taken the diamond finesse on the next round of the suit.
Bid with the aces
Answer: Pass if vulnerable; otherwise, bid to escape.
Opinions are sharply divided on whether it works out best in the long run to escape from one no-trump doubled or to sit it out and hope partner can defeat it. My view is that if vulnerable, I sit for it; and if nonvulnerable, I run. A separate issue is whether to play that one should bid naturally here or use Stayman and transfers. Both approaches are reasonable.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
