Bookworm Bridge Conundrums #48
This conundrum was written by Paul Thurston and was originally published in...
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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♦3
Today's deal was provided to me by Alan Sontag. It came up in a practice match in New York, organized by Mark Gordon. Mark was the hero in a delicate contract of four hearts. Against this contract in the other room West led a club, and declarer had made the normal play of tackling trumps by leading the suit from the top, going down one.
In the other room David Berkowitz had quite reasonably elected to lead a diamond rather than a club, which does not appear to make any significant difference, but Gordon was quick to seize on his extra chance. He took the diamond king at the first trick, cashed the heart ace and king, then played the diamond ace, ruffed a diamond, crossed to the club ace, and led the fourth diamond, discarding his club loser.
West was forced to win the trick and exit with a club, letting Gordon ruff and play for his only remaining chance of finding West with an embarrassing spade holding. When he exited from hand with a low spade, West won the trick, but whatever he returned allowed declarer to avoid a spade loser and concede just one more trick to the master trump.
The defenders are helpless in the ending, since once trumps break badly, declarer’s only legitimate chance against excellent defense is to play a low spade as he did, and find West with both spade honors or honor-10 doubleton.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 2♣ (Stayman)
Do you invite game or drive to game? And do you use Stayman or treat the hand as balanced and focus on no-trump? The answer to the first question is that your lack of intermediates makes this hand worth no more than an invitation, and you should look for spades rather than ignoring your major. If you find a fit and your partner has weakness or shortage in any side-suit, you will be glad you did.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
You can now play the hand of the day on BBO+ and compare how you get on with the players in the article.
