Hand of the day #211
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff This column aims to amuse, as well as to educa...
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
In today’s deal from our themed week, West kicks off with the diamond nine against
South’s optimistic four spades. East figures that is more likely to be from a doubleton than a singleton, so he ducks to keep a link to his partner’s hand for a third-round ruff, if West holds the spade ace or king.
Opening Lead: Diamond 9
A nice try, but declarer draws trump then leads out the diamond queen to East’s ace. It can hardly cost for East to shift to the club queen now, since declarer would have discarded a heart loser on a club already if he had wanted to. The club queen is covered by the king and ace, then the next club ruffed in dummy. Declarer needs a second heart trick now, and intends to finesse the nine-spot, playing East for the heart 10 and a higher honor. Indeed, that works here, with declarer able to ruff a club back to dummy to finesse the heart jack at the finish.
Not if East has anything to say about it! East can scuttle the contract by inserting the heart queen. On another day, the purpose of this might be to make declarer think East has split his honors from the king-queen, but here the aim is technical. Declarer must take the heart ace and cannot profitably continue hearts from hand, nor can he reach dummy for the second heart lead without forcing himself again in clubs. That is fatal, for when West wins the second heart, he has a club to cash for the setting trick. If only the diamond eight and diamond seven had been swapped!
Lead with the Aces
Answer: One no-trump
You could raise to two clubs, but if you play inverted minor raises, you do not want to jump to three clubs (which is primarily preemptive, and this hand is too strong for that). The hand is unsuitable to play at the three-level, and it has too much defense to want to keep the opponents out. Respond one no-trump.
The first story is a nice story.. but gets the entire conclusion wrong!
After East makes the great play of the Queen of hearts.. the play isn't over there. South wins, and cashes the remaining diamonds. What does West throw?
If they keep two clubs and the King of hearts, declarer can exit with a low heart, and the opponents will end up giving you the final trick in hearts.
If they retain two hearts and one club, declarer can ruff a club, and now can freely take the heart finesse.
Yes, this is a guess for declarer, but a definite chance.