The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♣K
There was a defense to South’s contract of four spades on this deal but it required imagination by West. It proved no surprise when he failed to find the right switch at trick two – to be fair, not many players would.
The opening lead of the club king was easy enough but a glance at dummy made it clear that his partner could hold virtually nothing in the way of high cards. With just three defensive tricks himself, West decided that the only chance lay in finding East with a void in diamonds. Accordingly, he switched to the diamond jack, and dummy’s queen won. True, when West took his trump ace, he was able to give East a ruff, but it was only a loser that he trumped, and now the diamond king had no further part to play.
Do you have any thoughts on how the defenders might have prevailed? Try the effect of the diamond king at trick two! Declarer takes this and plays trump, but West wins the first round and follows with the diamond jack. Dummy’s queen is ruffed away and South is still left with a losing diamond.
It may be slightly fortunate to find East with just sufficiently good hearts to deny declarer four tricks in the suit, but this was surely more likely than finding him with a void in diamonds. In any event, the contract will probably still be defeated on best defense if East does have a diamond void.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 1♥
There are two schools of thought. One suggests that responder should bid suits up the line when holding at least invitational values; the other focuses on major-suits and ignores diamonds. Put me in the latter camp when the diamond suit is as weak as this. I'll respond in hearts and hope to facilitate getting to game in one major or the other if appropriate.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
I respectfully disagree with the 1H call. The 1D call may be a weak suit, but it gives a) ample room for pd to bid their major if they have one b) give room for the opps to make a weak 2 revealing the distribution and possibly setting you up to penalize them or c) helping you see that a NT contract is (or is not) a good contract, especially in MP's. Maybe less in IMP's. Understanding your team's distribution at the 1 level is very helpful. You can work out the hcp's later.