Hand of the day #53
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff Follow the play in this deal from the final of...
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Why not cover up the East-West hands and treat today’s deal as a play problem?
Opening Lead: ♥5
Your no-nonsense three no-trump bid ends the auction – after all, why shouldn’t you bid what you think you can make. This elicits a heart lead from West, who no doubt thinks you have the spades stopped, and that a surprise attack might work out well. How should you approach the play?
You begin with just five top tricks and one more can be made in each minor. It is unlikely that hearts are splitting on this lead, in which case you will require three spade tricks. That should be possible as East rates to hold all the outstanding honors. Win the heart lead in dummy and play a spade, intending to insert the nine-spot if East follows small. Thus, you pick up a small singleton with West. When the spade nine holds, cross back over to the heart queen and play another spade up. Assuming East splits his honors, you should duck this time, to keep control. Take the marked finesse of the jack on the next spade then run the diamond queen to set up a second trick in that suit, before finally dislodging the club ace to establish your ninth. The defenders score one trick in each minor and at most two spades.
It would not help East to split his honors on the first spade. You simply duck that, win the return, run the diamond queen then use dummy’s two red-suit entries for spade finesses, driving out the club ace along the way.
Lead with the Aces
Answer: Lead the ♦A
It is unclear which suit you should be attacking for your third trick. Dummy may well have a source of tricks, so guessing wrong could prove costly. Best lay down the diamond ace to get a look at dummy. This can hardly cost when declarer has announced such a long trump holding. If dummy has long hearts and the spade ace, South may be able to cash them whatever you do.
Why not play the club Ace first to see the dummy ? Your partner could signal a switch to another suit if dummy held K clubs
I agree with this comment. The diamond Ace is a guaranteed entry, which could be valuable once you have seen dummy and have a better idea of what to lead to partner later in the hand. Also, if declarer gets in before you cash the club Ace, declarer might be able to discard a singleton club and your club Ace goes away.
Sir,I learnt here how a bridge player should take advantage of adversary bidding.Even without any clue,he should find out best pay-out of cards that serves his purpose. I ENOYED the deal very much because I want not to play deals but to learn things from masters.Tu.