Bookworm Bridge Conundrums #14
This conundrum was written by Danny Roth and was originally published in the b...
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Have a go at this defensive problem from the West seat.
Opening Lead: ♣4
You hear the opponents bid up to four hearts, sweeping aside your 1♠ overcall, and consider your opening lead. A diamond into dummy’s first-bid suit does not appeal, nor does your singleton trump. You opt for the club four, declarer playing the jack from dummy, covered by the king and ace. South takes the three top hearts, partner following with the 10 on the last round, then plays off the diamond ace-king and another, partner following upwards. What now?
Declarer presumably has five trumps as he did not investigate an alternative strain and partner followed with the ♥10 (no caring partner would do that from 10-nine remaining). You can see declarer has a discard coming on the fourth diamond, so it is in your interests to cash your club trick while you can get it.
However, if you cash the club queen, you might be stuck for a safe exit after that. If declarer began with 2♣ and king-third spade, you will have to yield a trick on your return; you will score only one spade trick as declarer will get one spade away on your ruff-and-discard, followed by another on the diamond. If instead declarer started with 2=5=3=3 shape including the spade king, you must get partner in for a spade shift before declarer can discard a spade.
Could partner have the spade king? Not really. He followed upwards in diamonds. He would surely play high-low on the second and third rounds as a suit preference signal if he had a high card in spades. So, declarer holds the spade king and your only chance, no matter the distribution, is to underlead your club queen to partner’s hoped-for 10. Indeed, that is necessary to set the hand. Note declarer’s fine play of the club jack at trick one. If he inserted the nine, partner would know to put the 10 on (you would not underlead the club ace), after which it would be easy for you to continue clubs to him. As it was, you had to risk looking silly when South held the club 10 (which would cost at most an overtrick).
Bid with the Aces
Answer: 1♥
The hand could well belong to your opponents, in which case you would like to attract a heart lead. Bid where you live with one heart. If your hand were stronger or you were in first or second seat, the emphasis would switch to constructive bidding and you would make the normal system call of one diamond.
Disagree! always 1d otherwise it is not understandable