The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: ♣10
Staying in control of dummy's entries would have been the key to success on today's deal. North correctly did not introduce his diamond suit at his first turn, and saw no reason to look any further than the no-trump slam when South showed a balanced hand.
Against six no-trump, West led the club 10, and declarer appreciated that he needed to bring in the diamond suit to make the slam. Of course, had dummy’s redundant spade jack been the diamond jack, the slam would have been foolproof.
South won the club lead with dummy’s king, then led a low diamond to his king. Returning to dummy in hearts, declarer played a second diamond. East smartly rose with the ace to return a heart, taking out dummy’s last entry. Although the diamonds could be set up after the queen dropped the jack, declarer needed a helicopter to reach the rest of the suit. One more option remained — the heart king might have dropped the jack — but when that failed, so did the slam.
South had allowed East to disrupt dummy’s entries. See the difference if declarer wins the first club in hand. Next comes a heart to dummy, for a diamond to the king. When that holds, a second heart to dummy is followed by another diamond, and now East is helpless. If he rises with the ace and returns a club, declarer wins in hand, cashes the diamond queen, collecting the jack, then a club to dummy’s king reunites him with the rest of the diamond suit.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 3♠
Two diamonds is a Michaels cue-bid, showing 5-5 in the majors, suggesting a hand in the range of 9-13, the hand strength depending a little on the vulnerability. With nearly all your values in the majors, you have enough to invite game — after all, facing A-Q-fifth of spades and K-J-fifth of hearts, you have a decent play for game. So bid three spades and let partner make the final decision.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
