Hand of the day #385
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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♥8
Today's deal comes from the Premier League, a domestic competition in the UK that is used to select the international team. The heroine is the late Michelle Brunner. Ironically, Brunner had been co-opted herself as a substitute to the Hackett team after the sudden and unexpected death of John Armstrong.
The auction to four spades was competitive, and a minor-suit lead would have set this contract, but West led his singleton heart — a reasonable choice. Careful play and accurate timing was needed to emerge with 10 tricks, and Michelle Brunner was well up to the task.
Correctly spurning the free finesse because of the entry problems to the South hand, she accurately rose with dummy’s heart ace, then drew trumps to remove the ruffing danger. Next came the finesse of the heart seven, followed by the heart king. It might look natural to discard a club loser from dummy. However, it was critical to pitch a diamond rather than a club from the board. Now came the heart jack, and Brunner ran this to East’s queen, pitching another diamond from dummy. This established the heart 10, to take care of the club loser in due course.
When East was in with the heart queen, he could cash two but not three diamond tricks. Five spades, four hearts, plus the club ace — the entry to the fourth heart — added up to declarer’s requisite 10 tricks. Very well played.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 4♦
Your partner's three-diamond cuebid shows extras and should initially be asking for a diamond stop. Presumably, he has a good hand, either with a single-suiter in clubs or some degree of heart support. With your extras, you just want your partner to pick the best game now, and the easiest way to do that is to bid four diamonds and abide by his decision of a final contract.
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.