Bookworm Bridge Conundrums #94
This conundrum was written by Mark Horton and was originally published...
You can now play the hand of the day on BBO+ and compare how you get on with the players in the article.
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♦3
Having a nasty surprise for the declarer in the trump suit may be sufficient grounds for doubling the final contract, but by alerting declarer to the bad break, you may provide a blueprint on how the hand should be played.
In today’s deal, having given a restrained preference to two spades, North could hardly be faulted for going on to game when South issued a somewhat dubious invitation. West doubled and led the diamond three; declarer took East’s king with the ace. Alerted by the double, declarer left trump well alone, and prepared for a diamond ruff by returning the diamond jack at trick two, making sure that East could not gain the lead and switch to a trump.
West won and tried the effect of switching to a cunning club six. Declarer put up dummy’s ace and played the heart queen, covered by the king and ace. He ruffed his last diamond, returned to hand with the heart jack, and ruffed a heart. Then he trumped a club, revealing West’s deception, and ruffed his last heart with dummy’s remaining trump.
Declarer was now down to the spade K-Q-9-6 while West had his four trumps left, and dummy was reduced to just clubs. With eight tricks in the bag, declarer played a club and ruffed it with his spade queen. West overruffed with the spade ace and returned the jack, but declarer ducked and left West on play to lead into declarer’s spade tenace. Contract made!
Lead with the aces
Answer: ♦ or ♥
This is a blind guess. You could sell me on a passive diamond lead (the five) or an aggressive heart lead. I would surely not lead a spade, and a club looks just too likely to cost a trick. In an auction where the opponents appear to have no values to spare, there is much to be said for going passive.
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.
