Hand of the day #168

The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff


The NEC tournament in Yokohama takes place over Valentine’s Day every year. 

Opening Lead: K

Peter Gill contributed a nice play by Brian Senior in today’s deal, where he declared four spades doubled. West led a diamond and accurately shifted to a trump. It looks natural to win this cheaply in dummy and lead a club, but the defenders have the upper hand if they win and lead a second diamond. Declarer can crossruff the minor suits to set up the clubs, but will run out of trumps in the process. At the very end, West can keep a master diamond and the heart ace.

Senior figured out that he needed the heart ace onside, come what may. So he took the trump shift in hand and led a heart up. West ducked, and now declarer could win dummy’s heart king and lead a club. The defenders could take the club ace and cross to the West hand with a heart for the second trump play, but now declarer was in control and could establish clubs.

Had the defenders played to force declarer at trick five, the fact that the heart trick was in the bag would have made the critical difference. Even though the defenders could in fact have prevailed by winning the heart ace and playing a second trump, that does not detract from Senior’s play.


Lead with the aces

This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.

Click here to play earlier Hands of the day ▶

Share this hand with a friend:

Laisser une réponse

Votre adresse électronique ne sera pas publiée. Les champs obligatoires sont marqués *

Hand of the day #200
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff When you have reached game after a defender ha...
Hand of the day #199
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff There is nothing more embarrassing than to go ...
Hand of the day #198
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff At no-trump it is often right to duck tricks e...
1 2 3 89
croisermenu