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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♣3
Against three no-trump West naturally leads his fourth-highest club. South must win the first trick, of course. But how should he advance from there?
It looks as if you have nine top winners, but there is many a chance for a slip-up. True, there are indeed nine winners if diamonds split, and you do have a 90 percent chance of finding diamonds breaking 3-1 or 2-2. But just because the suit rates to behave, there is no reason for it to do so. If East has all four diamonds, you are in deep trouble. But what if it is West who has four diamonds?
You cannot afford to do anything but lead to a top diamond at trick two — if you make any other play in the suit, you risk looking incredibly foolish if East wins the jack. But what you must do is to start to unblock the diamonds by leading the diamond eight or 10 from your hand, winning with a high honor in dummy.
If you discover that West has all four of the missing diamonds, you can still recover with the aid of two finesses, but only if you have cleared the eight or 10 out of the way on the first round. When East shows out, you can use your two aces as entries to take two finesses against West by leading your remaining high spot-card from hand and forcing a cover, then crossing back to your hand for a second finesse.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 2♣
The first question to answer is whether you have enough to force to game; the answer is an emphatic yes. That said, since two diamonds by you now would merely invite game, start with a cue-bid, then bid diamonds, and let the chips fall where they may.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
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