The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♠Q
South opens the bidding with one diamond. Would you, as West, enter the auction with a shape-showing bid, vulnerable? How about at favorable vulnerability, as here? This rates to work out fine if partner can support at least one of your suits — you may well have paved the way to a worthwhile sacrifice. But there is certainly a downside if your partner's hand proves to be a broken reed. You may well go for a large penalty — which is not in and of itself disastrous if the opponents can make game. More serious, though, is that (as here) you may have provided declarer with a blueprint for tackling the hand.
Against six diamonds West led the spade queen, and declarer appreciated that any attempt to ruff spades in dummy would lead to the demise of the slam. South rose with dummy’s ace and immediately played a second spade. If East had ruffed, he would only have been ruffing a loser, and the spade king could later take care of the third-round club loser. East followed, the king held — and now declarer could tackle hearts.
The heart king, then a heart to the ace, stood up, and next came a third heart. East ruffed, South overruffed with the jack, and a low trump to dummy allowed the last heart to be played. East had no answer. If he discarded, South could ruff low, then draw trump. If he ruffed in, declarer would overruff, draw the remaining trump, and 12 tricks would be there.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 4♣
You want to set hearts as trump, and the simple way to do that is to bid four hearts. But is that enough? With all four aces, you really have a slam-suitable hand if partner wants to cooperate. You don't have to go mad; simply bid four clubs — a cue-bid in support of the last suit, and let partner decide if he wants to go past four hearts.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
