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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♦K
Most of the rules in bridge have an underlying grain of sense to them. Equally, it is almost impossible to construct a rule where one cannot find an exception. A typical rule that is generally but not always right is the prohibition against giving a ruff-sluff. Today's deal shows when a defender can break that rule.
North-South had an optimistic but straightforward auction to slam, though North’s decision to set up a game-force with a relatively balanced hand persuaded South to overbid by using Blackwood, when perhaps cue-bidding would have kept the contract low. In general, the use of the Jacoby two-no-trump response should be restricted to hands better than a dead-minimum opening bid.
Declarer took the diamond king lead, drew trump, eliminated the spades, and exited with a diamond to leave West on play in the six-card ending. Before she led to the next trick, she paused to count out declarer’s distribution. South was marked with having started with 2-5-2-4 distribution, so a ruff-and-discard would not advance declarer’s cause — either the clubs were solid to start with, or there would still be a loser. Conversely, touching clubs might surrender the defenders’ trick in that suit if East had the club queen and declarer played for split honors. So West exited with the diamond 10, and declarer had to lose a club at the end.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 1NT
You have the shape and values to bid one no-trump here. The bid of a major in response to an overcall can be made on a four-card suit but not one as weak as this, particularly when you have a sensible alternative, and certainly not after the negative double by your RHO, which suggests he has both majors.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
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