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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♠5
The objective in today's deal from the Asia Pacific games is to reach three no-trump and avoid a spade lead. In the other room the pair for Pan-China did their best when North opened a weak no-trump and was raised to game. However, East did extremely well to lead the spade nine.
Declarer won the ace and finessed in hearts. East won and cleared spades, after which declarer had no chance. Had declarer ducked in dummy at trick one, West would also have had to duck while encouraging, in order to set the game.
In our other, featured, room, West led a fourth-highest spade against three no-trump, but no doubt the two-spade call by South had persuaded East that his partner could not hold a five-card suit. Accordingly, when declarer won the spade queen and led a diamond, East ducked. Declarer won his diamond queen and took a heart finesse. East correctly won the first heart and cleared spades, but declarer could run the hearts and take the club finesse for his ninth trick.
At yet a third table North-South reached five diamonds on a spade lead. Declarer won the queen and led a trump to hand, a heart to the queen, which held, and now, quite reasonably, instead of taking the club finesse, he played a second trump to hand and repeated the heart finesse. Disaster! East, Gan Xinli, won his heart king, cashed the diamond ace, and cut loose with a spade, leaving declarer with three eventual club losers. Nicely defended!
Bid with the aces
Answer: Pass
There is much to be said for playing bids of either two clubs or two hearts as natural here. With a two-suited hand, double or bid two no-trump, or even bid one no-trump as a passed hand, since you can't be strong and balanced. But even if two hearts is natural here, you need more offense than a balanced 5-3-3-2 pattern. So pass, and maybe back in on the next round if appropriate.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
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