The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♥J
The general rule about winning or ducking tricks is that when in doubt ,you should win the trick if you can. But there is a whole class of positions where ducking in a suit in which you do have the top cards has a much more devious purpose than generating extra tricks from that suit alone. Your duck is strategic, in that it relates to the play in the side suits, and not just in the suit itself.
Imagine that on today’s deal you play in four spades, that being the only suit bid, and West leads the heart jack. If you take this and draw trump before conceding a heart, East will surely win the third heart and should find the diamond switch. This will be enough to beat the contract when the club finesse loses.
But say that you duck the first trick and follow with the eight, trying to make East’s spot card look as large as possible. West will surely feel happy about continuing with the heart 10, won’t he? That will give you time to develop a heart, on which you will discard one of dummy’s losing diamonds.
Do you blame West for not shifting to a diamond? It is hard to be too critical, since you might hold a 5-4-3-1 pattern with your actual honors — except that you have the diamond ace, not the heart ace. Now a diamond switch would be the only way to let the contract through.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 4♥
If you believe, as I do, that two-level overcalls are not to be taken lightly, especially facing a passed partner, then a simple bid of three hearts does not do justice to this hand. You should bid four hearts, since you were planning to show a limit raise had East not stolen your bid.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
