The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♠A
The finals of the NEC trophy in Yokohama turned out to be one-way traffic, in favor of the combined Russia-Netherlands team. This deal was symptomatic of what happened in the match.
In one room Evgeny Gladysh was delighted when the opponents came to rest at the three-level in his best suit. He started with ace and another spade, as declarer, Sabine Auken, pitched a club. She then led a trump to the king and ace. Gladysh switched to a heart, and Auken won and played four rounds of the suit to pitch a club before playing any more trump. That allowed Sjoert Brink to ruff in from the short trump hand, and now the contract was down three for minus 150.
In the other room Andrei Gromov played in diamonds, but a level lower and two tricks better. Jacek Pszczola for Team Welland (known as Pepsi) led a heart against two diamonds. Gromov won and did not play on trumps; instead, he led a spade to the queen and ace.
Pepsi now switched to a club to the ace, and Michal Kwiecien returned a club. Gromov won the king, crossed to a top heart, then pitched his last club on the spade king. He ruffed a spade, led his third heart to dummy, then ruffed a club and got out with a low diamond. Kwiecien overtook the diamond eight with the jack and returned a diamond, but Pepsi was now endplayed to concede a diamond to Gromov’s king for eight tricks, and 6 IMPs to Russia.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 1NT
Even as a passed hand, I would caution against responding at the two-level when you have only a singleton in partner's suit. A response of one no-trump may temporarily conceal your diamonds — but as against that, it is far from clear you want to emphasize them that much. You have a bad hand for partner; a two-level response may excite him unduly.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
