The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♦2
In today's deal South reached the normal game after a Stayman sequence from North had disclosed that South had no major. The contract looks easy to make, but South paid the penalty for playing a careless card. The diamond two was led to the jack, queen and ace (the king might have been more deceptive). As it was, West inferred declarer rated to hold both top diamonds. Next, declarer led a low club to dummy, and a club back to his jack and West's queen.
West now counted South’s points to be the diamond ace and king, together with the club ace-jack. West could see no way to beat the game if his partner had the spade king, so it made sense to play him for both top hearts. The contract might still look hard to defeat, but West worked out that if East had A-K-7-3 of hearts, he could establish four tricks in the suit by force.
Accordingly, West shifted to the heart 10, and South had to cover in dummy. East won the trick with his king and was faced with the dilemma of whether to press on in hearts or go back to diamonds. The heart play would be right only on this specific lie of the suit, but could a diamond ever be correct? East decided that declarer’s decision to win the first diamond rather than duck the suit twice made that impossible. So he played back a low heart, and the defenders cashed out the hearts for down one.
Bid with the aces
Answer: Double
This is a classic example of when to make a responsive double, suggesting four cards in both majors. The double is essentially for takeout, and this would apply if East had raised to three diamonds. But note that a double by South of a new suit by East would be penalty, not responsive. Here South will raise either major to three.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
