Hand of the day #211
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff This column aims to amuse, as well as to educa...
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Are more contracts lost by drawing trump too late or too early? It is hard to say, but a little learning can often be a dangerous thing.
Opening Lead: ♦J
One standard bridge play is to generate extra trump tricks by ruffing losers in the short-trump hand. When those losers can be discarded on other winners, such plays may be unnecessary at best and at worst countereffective. In today’s heart game, South has a third-round spade loser. There are two ways to get rid of it: on dummy’s diamonds or on the fifth club. The key here is to avoid losing too many trump tricks.
Accordingly, South wins the diamond lead in dummy and does NOT cash the second diamond — there will be time enough for that later on. His sole focus will be to hold his trump losers to two. The best way to do that is not to lay down the ace — that would look silly if East had a small singleton trump — but to lead to the 10. West will be happy to win his bare trump jack and will elect to defend passively by returning a diamond (although a spade would have forced declarer to rely on a trump break). Declarer wins the second diamond on the board, pitching a spade, and leads a heart, covering East’s card. South still has a spare trump to ruff the next diamond and can draw trumps successfully.
Lead with the aces
Answer: ♦7
There is no reason to lead anything but a diamond. My choice would be the seven (the four may be too tough for partner to read). This way, partner should be able to avoid finessing against dummy and losing a trick to a singleton honor in declarer’s hand.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
I thought it was a trick question, therefore I did not choose the obvious trump lead.
No reason to lead anything but a diamond? That seems foolish to think and more foolish to phrase it that way. Leading a trump here can EASILY gain. If diamonds are 3-2 with dummy having a doubleton, or 3-1 with dummy having a singleton, you might wish you had led a trump. Dummy might even be 4432 or 4441 and a trump lead works wonderfully to cut down club ruffs. I would contend that leading a trump here is superior by far to leading a diamond, on a probability basis. Also, I would expect the majority of experts to lead a trump here. Examples of dummy/declarer where a spade lead holds declarer to 2 whereas a diamond lead allows declarer to make 3.
Qxx AKTxx
Kxxx Ax
x JTx
Q9xxx xxx
Kxx AQxxx
Jxxx xxx
Axxx x
xx KQxx
Regardless, the language used is foolish, because it implies that there could not possibly be a different good lead. I object to the language used because of its false implication and arrogance.