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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♥2
"Eight ever, nine never" reminds us that when we have eight trumps between our two hands, we should finesse for the queen, but when we have nine, we should play for the drop. This is reasonable advice, but there are sometimes good reasons for disobeying it.
At the table declarer in six spades took the straightforward line of cashing the spade ace and king, but when the queen did not drop and the diamond finesse was also wrong, he had to go down. Can you see how he might have done better? Declarer should see that if he can time the play accurately and lose a trick to East at the critical moment, he can insure his contract. With this aim in mind, declarer should start eliminating his hearts and club losers. He should win the heart king, cross to dummy with a club, cash the heart ace, ruff a heart, then go back to a club and ruff the fourth heart.
Now he can cash the club ace, discarding a diamond, and finally the time has come to play trump. Declarer should see that it doesn’t matter if he loses a trump trick to East’s doubleton queen, as East will be endplayed. So declarer should cash the spade ace and play a spade to the 10. If it holds, then all his problems are over, but if it loses to East’s queen, then the defender will have to play a diamond into dummy’s tenace or give a ruff and discard.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 3♣
Partner's double suggests values and the unbid suits. Your choice is unpalatable: a penalty pass without a trump honor, a rebid of the spade suit with only five moderate cards, and a response in a three-card suit if you bid three clubs. Which is least offensive? I do not know, but I'd guess that even if passing is right in theory, a retreat to three clubs works out best in practice.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
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west exits with a heart.south wins with the king, plays a club to the queen, cashes the ace of hearts ruffs a heart,plays another club to the king, ruffs the 4th heart,cashes the ace of
clubs discarding a diamond from dummy,cashes the ace of spades and plays a spade to the ten. the finesse wins cause west has the queen. suppose east has the queen is also ok as after east wins, it's not safe whatever it plays.if it plays a diamond north has ace-queen. if it plays a club south ruffs and throws diamond queen from dummy.
The description of hand 703 is incomplete and leaves a question. After playing the A of Clubs, I’m in my hand. I want W not E to win the SQ. So do you mean play toward the K and finesse, or play to the K and run the 10?
What? East doesn’t have Q♠️ West has it. It won’t work
Hi, it should be spade ace and spade to the 10, so if east has the queen, they would be endplayed
What partner and I passed it on and we both paid
My name is B LUBBY and her name
BROCKSY can we get our money back we would appreciate it
"So declarer should cash the spade king and play a spade to the 10." Shouldn't this have read "cash the spade ace" etc.?
Hi yes, it should be spade ace and spade to the 10
I could not understand a word of it! It did not make sense..
Self indulgent!
Redfern Holmes