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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff

Opening Lead: ♠4

The first two days of the spring nationals feature the Baldwin North American pairs, for which one qualifies by district; a small field reduces down to a 14-table final. At the event in Memphis, the winners were Jordan Cohen and Barry Senensky, who were among the lowest qualifiers for the finals. If not for this deal from the first qualifying session, they might not have been playing on day two.

The deal emphasizes that one should not play bridge in a vacuum, but should take advantage of any indications provided to you by the opponents. You exploit such variations at your own risk, of course, but a skilled player soon learns what and whom to believe!

Against the delicate spade slam (I might use a less flattering term had the contract not come home), West led a trump, taken in dummy. Declarer, Jordan Cohen — who is the son of one of the stalwarts of the American Contract Bridge League, the late Ralph Cohen — followed up by running the club jack, which lost to West’s king.

He won the spade continuation in dummy and was now faced with a choice of lines. Rather than rely on strict percentages, he tested his table presence by advancing the heart king. When South played low smoothly, Cohen decided that the ace rated to be wrong. He ruffed the heart, then finessed in both minors to come to 12 tricks. He was lucky, perhaps, but he exploited the lie of the cards to the best advantage.

Bid with the aces

This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.

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