The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff

This hand, from a 2005 Bermuda Bowl meeting between Italy and Netherlands, features an expert second-hand defensive play by Lorenzo Lauria that was missed in the other room.

Opening Lead: Heart 10

Against four spades, Louk Verhees started with the heart 10, ducked all around. He continued with the heart queen, ruffed by declarer, Norberto Bocchi. At trick three, Bocchi led a low club to dummy’s 10. Jan Jansma, East, won his king and exited with the diamond jack, taken by declarer with the ace. Bocchi now cashed the diamond king and ruffed a diamond with the spade jack. There was nothing the defense could do. Declarer would eventually discard his losing diamond after repeating the club finesse. As it was, even this was not necessary when East did not overruff. He was eventually thrown in with the spade queen to lead into dummy’s tenaces, and Bocchi had 10 tricks.

At the other table, Simon de Wijs also played four spades from the South seat. The play went along similar lines, but when de Wijs led a club, Lauria, West, put in the queen, second hand high, to scuttle declarer’s communications. De Wijs could still have succeeded at double-dummy (by winning the club ace, cashing the top diamonds, and throwing East in with a club), but without a peek, he played to ruff a diamond in dummy and finished one down.

Putting up an honor when dummy has A-J-10 is far easier to see when you hold the king rather than the queen. So credit to Lauria here.

Lead with the Aces

Click here to play earlier Hand of the day ▶