Hand of the day #10
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff In the Tollemache, the English inter-county ch...
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Today's deal revolves around unusual second-hand plays in defense to suit contracts.
Since the adage: ‘second hand low, third hand high,’ is so deeply set in the minds of bridge players, you can perhaps expect most of these deals to involve reasons to play second hand high instead.
Opening Lead: Spade queen
West leads the spade queen against four hearts, won by the ace as East starts an echo with the eight. When declarer calls for a low heart from dummy East may well play low by rote on this trick, but that would cost the game. West can win the heart king and continue spades, but declarer takes the marked finesse of dummy’s 10 then continues drawing trumps. He can eventually essay the diamond finesse for the overtrick.
East should consider where four tricks are likely to come from. He can see two in the red suits, but West can hardly provide two more. If West held the heart king and club ace, South would have at most a five-count. With the minor-suit 10s in dummy, slow tricks are unlikely to be forthcoming, and if the trump jack is missing the defenders probably will not score a trick with it.
No; East’s best chance is to score a third-round spade ruff, which will only be possible if the defense have two trump stoppers. Since West must have an entry to supply the ruff. East should fly up with his ace, then return a spade, preserving West’s heart king as an entry for the ruff. East must come to his diamond trick in the fullness of time.
Lead with the Aces
Lead the heart five. There is a case for laying down a top heart to cater for jack-doubleton in an opponent’s hand, since you have plenty of entries on the side. Still, that might crash partner’s honor, block the suit, or take away a guess if partner has the 10 and dummy the jack. Lead a low heart – but lead a top heart if you had the 10 instead of the eight.
