Hand of the day #250
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff Before you read the analysis of today’s deal...
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
In today’s deal South responded three spades to his partner’s double, thinking that if he was forced to bid again, it would be more economical to have bid the higher suit first. However, it is surely better to bid hearts first, as partner might now conveniently introduce a spade suit, whereas it would be much harder to introduce hearts over three spades.
Opening Lead: ♣A
Against three spades West led the club ace, on which East dropped the king as suit-preference. West obediently switched to the heart jack, ruffed by East, who continued with the club queen.
South ruffed in dummy and played the ace and queen of spades. West won the king and played a diamond won by dummy’s queen. Now a heart to the ace was the entry to draw West’s last trump. Another heart was played, South eventually disposing of his losing club on dummy’s long heart. So three spades came home.
After the top club lead and heart shift, there are two implausible ways to set the hand: East can refuse to ruff the heart jack, or equally curiously, West can duck the spade queen.
In the other room South played in three hearts and received the lead of ace and another club. He ruffed, played the heart ace, and now instead of taking the diamond finesse, led another heart. West ducked, locking the lead in dummy. West could win his spade king to draw trumps, then collect a minor-suit winner at the end for down one.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 2♠
You can simply raise to two spades, suggesting three or four spades and a minimum hand. Alternatively, bid two diamonds, planning to convert a preference to two hearts to two spades. That shows this pattern but guarantees a nonminimum opening bid. You could sell me on that action with as little extra as the heart jack, but as it is, I prefer the simpler choice of raising spades directly.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
It could be mentioned here, that responder can either pass with minimum or bid on, but not knowing if the raise done with 3 or 4 could become an issue. So a responder with an on going hand (at least an invitational strength) could use "Spiral/Ogust" (2 names for same convention) 2NT asking bid where 3C/D are minimum/Maximum with 3 card support and 3H/S are m/M with 4.