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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♦3
The question of whether to lead the only unbid suit when the opponents have confidently reached three no-trump is a vexing one. Michael Rosenberg, formerly of Scotland, is now a world champion in the United States. He resisted the impulse to lead the fourth suit in this deal from the 1995 Vanderbilt and regretted it.
Rosenberg, playing with Zia Mahmood, led a diamond to the jack and king and ducked the club queen. He took the diamond nine with the ace, played a heart, and declarer won this to try a spade to the queen and king. Back came a second spade to the nine and 10.
Zia as East had a choice of three losing options. When he chose a heart, declarer won the king and played the club jack, ducked by Rosenberg again. Now a finesse of the diamond eight was the ninth trick.
This hand represented a 12-IMP swing against the number one seeds in the Vanderbilt Trophy and it represented most of the margin of their loss in that event. The underdog team included Brian Platnick and John Diamond, for whom I had forecast great things at the time they were practicing for the world junior championships, an event they went on to win. Indeed, they have since gone on to collect the open world title in Philadelphia in 2010. Not all my predictions have worked quite as well, so I must make the most of my accurate ones!
Bid with the aces
Answer: Double
Your partner has shown a strong hand and interest in penalizing the opponents. With a balanced defensive hand, it looks right to me to double rather than to pass. Partner doesn't have to sit for this with extreme club shortage, but assuming he has a balanced hand, your best bet looks to be to defend.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
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