The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♣K
There is nothing more satisfying than to find a hand where the defenders set their opponent a real challenge, and declarer was equal to the task.
This deal came up at the European championships a few years ago, and few defenders found the route to trouble declarer. A typical sequence of play saw the defenders cash their clubs and exit in trump, letting declarer ruff a heart to hand early and draw trump.
Far better for the defense is for West to cash the diamond ace at trick three and play a third club, attacking the trump suit. When this happened, declarer elected to ruff in hand. However, the 3-1 trump break coupled with the bad heart break meant that so long as West did not cover the spade jack, declarer could not avoid a fourth loser. If declarer drew trump, he would be unable to ruff out hearts; if he left trump out, West could overruff South on the third heart. (Note that if West covers the spade jack, declarer can ruff the next heart high and then finesse the spade eight to make his game.)
The winning line at trick three for declarer is to ruff the club on the table and discard his heart from hand. Now he can take a heart ruff and run the spade jack. West will gain nothing by covering, but if he ducks, declarer leads a spade to the queen. Next comes a second heart ruff, a spade to the ace, and dummy is high.
Bid with the aces
Answer: Pass
Even by a passed hand a call of two diamonds, the fourth suit, would be forcing for one round. But that call would be unwise, and a bid of two no-trump would be suicidal. This leaves you three unpalatable choices. Rebidding two spades might leave you in a 5-1 fit, and giving preference to two hearts rates to do the same. So what else can you do but pass and hope partner has five clubs?
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
