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: ♥J
It is not immediately clear what is the best slam for North-South to reach with today’s cards. The bidding has several points of interest since North has enough for a positive response to the two club opening but no convenient suit to bid. South might rebid three diamonds rather than two no-trump. Once he treats his hand as balanced, the highest-scoring small slam is reached.
The lead of the heart jack gets declarer off to a friendly start, but how should one play the hand — either at teams or matchpoints? Clearly if diamonds divide 3-2, South has 13 top tricks. He must, however, guard against a 4-1 diamond split, a break that occurs almost one time in four.
If South unblocks his clubs and leads to the diamond ace to cash the club ace, the 4-1 diamond split may defeat him. (The opponents may cash one club or more when they gain the lead with the fourth diamond.)
To overcome this difficulty, declarer must give up a diamond trick before he uses up his diamond-ace entry to dummy. He must, of course, cash his king and queen of clubs at tricks two and three before making the essential move of conceding a diamond trick.
This line of play guarantees the contract unless diamonds are 5-0. Declarer wins the return and uses the diamond ace as his entry to dummy to cash the club ace and discard his heart loser.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 3♦
Your choice is to jump to three diamonds, suggesting about eight playing tricks in diamonds and inviting your partner to bid on if he has a trick. Or you can rebid at no-trump (a call of one no-trump shows 18-20, two no-trump shows 21-22). I prefer the diamond bid. With no quick tricks in your hand and with such a broken diamond suit, I’d be worried about the clubs running against me.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
If you’re a BBO+ member, you can now play the Hand of the Day directly on BBO as part of your membership benefits.
Go to the BBO+ section, select BBO+ Games and Events, then click Play Today’s Deal to give it a try and compare your result with the players featured in the article.
