The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♥6
Before falling prey to the knee-jerk reaction of taking your trump tricks when you can "before the rats get at them," stop to consider the implications.
At the table West naturally led a heart against four spades, and East cashed two of his top hearts, then continued with a third. West was quick to ruff in with the queen in front of dummy. Declarer took the diamond return on the table, and with dummy’s two trumps still intact, he was able to run the nine successfully. South continued by finessing the 10, and with the ace dropping East’s king on the third round of the suit, he was able to claim 10 tricks.
See the difference if West elects to discard on the third heart, rather than ruff. Declarer ruffs in dummy, yes, but the consequence of this is that dummy is now reduced to one trump. This means that only one trump finesse can be taken. Declarer duly takes it, and West wins with the queen and returns a diamond.
With no trumps left in dummy, and lacking the ability to reduce his trumps in hand sufficiently to effect a trump coup, South will continue with the spade ace, hoping that East had started with a doubleton spade king. But this eventuality will not come to pass, and declarer ends with just nine tricks, having to concede a second trump to the spade king.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 2♣
There are some (not I) who would have opened this hand a strong no-trump. And equally, there are others who would now reverse into two diamonds at their second turn. I prefer to rebid clubs because I feel that a reverse — which would force club preference at the three-level — requires at least another working queen.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
