Hand of the day #176
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff Opening Lead: ♥Q When South played four spad...
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Imagine you are in four no-trump today on a heart lead.
Opening Lead: ♥4
The safety play in the club suit to ensure the four tricks you need is to lead out the club ace, then cross to dummy with a spade and lead up to the club jack. This way you pick up either defender’s remaining three-card suit for one loser, guaranteed.
The best play for five tricks, while not seriously jeopardizing four tricks, is to cross to a top spade at trick two and lead a club to the jack. This loses only to a singleton club queen in West. And remember that if West has led his long suit at trick one and that appears to be only four cards in length, then HE is more likely to have four clubs than East! You will see (as did rather too many of the declarers in the tournament) that playing a club to the king and a club back to the A-J is an exceedingly bad idea. A diamond shift or continuation would hold you to nine tricks now.
A technical point: Note that on an initial low diamond lead, East should play the eight to the first trick, not the jack. (This is the right play when declarer has a doubleton such as A-K, A-Q, K-Q, K-9, or Q-9, and wrong only when declarer has the diamond A-9.)
Lead with the aces
Answer: Lead a heart
Opinions differ on whether it is better to try to hit partner’s suit by leading a spade, or to go with your own length with a club lead. I might compromise by leading a heart. After all, if partner has a five-card major, wouldn’t you rather it was hearts than spades?
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.