Hand of the day #14
Bobby Wolff answers your questions You hold: With everyone vulnerable. Partner p...
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Opening Lead: Diamond jack
When North shows a constructive raise of hearts, South makes a splinter-bid of three spades to show slam interest with short spades. That improves North’s hand dramatically, since he holds a tranche of working red-suit honors and a ruffing value. He cue-bids four diamonds then goes to the well one more time after South’s sign-off, effectively forcing South to bid slam facing a club control. This auction is well conceived; if South can make a slam try, North’s two keycards must make the five level safe.
Against the slam West sees no need to bank on leading his spade ace when South is known to be short in the suit, nor to attack in clubs when he has so much overall strength. He opts for the most passive option available to him, and leads the diamond jack instead. After winning in dummy, declarer immediately starts on spades in an attempt to establish the suit for a club discard. When declarer leads a low spade from dummy, how should East defend?
If East plays small, declarer’s queen will force the ace. South can subsequently re-enter dummy in trumps to take the ruffing spade finesse against East’s king, then cross back to dummy to pitch his club queen on the established spade 10.
East must rise with the spade king to defeat the slam, protecting West’s ace. Whatever the defenders do now, declarer lacks the entries to ruff down the spade ace and must eventually rely on the club finesse, which fails.
Lead with the Aces
Answer: 2♠
You have a minimum to introduce a new suit at the two-level, but there is a safety net in bidding two spades; if partner rebids two no-trump, denying a spade fit, he must have at least four clubs and you can retreat to three clubs, which ought to be non-forcing. While this may be an overbid, it seems to be the least lie.
2 Sp