Hand of the day #266
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff After this relatively long auction to six spad...
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Against four spades partner leads the heart jack to declarer’s king. At trick two, the club six is played to dummy’s king, partner following with the five. Do you jump on this trick?
Opening Lead: ♥J
If you win the trick, it looks best to return a second heart to the ace. Declarer next plays three rounds of trump, West’s queen winning the third. Partner must play a diamond now, hoping that you have the K-J, in which case you could dislodge dummy’s diamond ace, the entry to the long clubs.
However, you can do no better than win the diamond king and exit with a heart, which declarer ruffs. He then draws the last trump and ruffs the clubs good. The diamond ace remains as an entry to dummy; 10 tricks made.
The key to the defense was partner’s card at trick two. His play of the club five shows an odd number of clubs, so you know the club suit is distributed 5-3-2-3 around the table. (With 10-8-5-4, for example, he should have played the eight to give you the count as clearly as possible.)
If you allow the club king to win trick two, declarer requires two more entries to dummy, one to set up the clubs and one to enjoy the suit. Since the diamond ace is his only entry, he will have no way to access dummy’s winners, assuming best defense. Not capturing honors with honors kills a re-entry within the suit itself and defeats the game.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 4♣
West’s double calls for East to lead his shorter or weaker major and suggests West has a solid major or the equivalent and a side entry. Since whichever major East leads will find you with nothing, are you prepared to sit this one out and risk a sizable penalty? Run to four clubs and live to fight another day.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
pass is the better option
I disagree! I think Pass is the best option