You can now play the hand of the day on BBO+ and compare how you get on with the players in the article.

The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff

Opening Lead: ♠2

At the Lederer there are awards for best-bid, -played and -defended hand. This one belongs in the category of "You should have seen the one that got away."

Andy Robson had an opportunity in this deal where, like many declarers, he found himself in six hearts.

On a minor-suit lead there are enough entries to establish and enjoy the diamonds. However, Justin Hackett found the most testing start, a spade, and Andy won and ducked a diamond. East won and returned a second spade, perforce won in the dummy. Robson won and cashed two rounds of hearts and could no longer recover from the unfriendly breaks in the red suits.

The correct line at trick four is to cash the heart and diamond aces (you have no chance on a 5-1 break) and ruff a diamond high. Now the diamonds are known to be breaking 4-2, and when you cross to the heart nine, you also know the trumps are 3-1.

This forces you to fall back on your last chance, namely that spades were 3-3, by ruffing a diamond high, crossing to another heart in dummy, and throwing a spade on the long diamond. Then you can ruff out the spade, and finally use your club ace to enjoy the 13th spade. So, the third chance, an unlikely one, would have worked.

In the end you finish up ruffing two diamonds and a spade in your hand, establishing a long card in both of dummy’s suits.

Bid with the aces

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

You can now play the hand of the day on BBO+ and compare how you get on with the players in the article.

Click here to play earlier Hands of the day ▶