Hand of the day #689
You can now play the hand of the day on BBO+ and compare how you get on with the...
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: ♣K
A fine bidding sequence propelled South into seven spades here, against which West led the club king. Declarer could count 12 tricks: six trumps, three diamonds, two hearts and a club. There are three possibilities for the 13th trick. One is setting up the heart suit, or East could hold a singleton heart honor, so that West can be finessed for the other. Finally there might be a squeeze on West. For the squeeze to operate, West needed to hold the club queen – likely given the lead – plus both the heart queen and jack. South decided to play for the more likely chance of hearts breaking no worse than 4-2.
As the only way to reach the long heart, should that suit break 4-2, is with a trump, trump needed to break no worse than 3-1. But care had to be taken in setting up the hearts, in case they lay as they did, with West being able to overruff South.
After capturing the club-king lead in dummy, declarer cashed the diamond king and queen and the heart ace — no heart honor appearing from East. Next came a trump to dummy, then the diamond ace, on which South discarded the heart six. Then a low heart was ruffed low in hand, and another trump to dummy allowed a second heart ruff – this time with the ace.
A spade to dummy, collecting West’s last trump in the process, was followed by the heart king and 10, on which South’s two losing clubs departed.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 2♦
Your partner's double is takeout, but a pass by you here might suggest that you were happy with defending. You cannot risk that; bid two diamonds rather than two hearts because you know RHO has heart length and because partner might have bid a major suit rather than doubling at his second turn.
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.
