Hand of the day #263
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff In the finals of the 2011 NEC tournament in Yo...
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
In today’s deal, game was bid and made seven times — eight if you count the result of three spades doubled making nine tricks by one East-West pair. David Bakhshi of England as South was one of the careful declarers who brought home three no-trump via a nice exercise in counting.
Opening Lead: ♣7
North, David Gold, did not think he had enough for a vulnerable pre-empt; however, his delayed route into the auction persuaded his partner to take a shot at the no-trump game.
West led a high club spot to East’s ace for a shift to the spade nine, covered by the 10 and won by West’s jack.
West now went back to clubs, leading declarer to conclude that the spades were 4-3 and that West had started with five clubs, else East would surely have continued the suit at trick two or put in the queen at trick one.
That being so, Bakhshi cashed the heart ace and king, and when West showed out, he knew to take the diamond finesse against West rather than to play for the drop, since West had to have three diamonds to make up his 13 cards.
Lead with the aces
Answer: ♥J
Your partner cannot have five spades or he would have acted already. So the choice is to lead your top club (hoping to hit the 'jack'pot), or to play for partner to come through with unexpected length in one of the red suits. Leading through dummy looks like a better chance to me. If so, there may well be a case for leading the heart jack rather than a small card, unorthodox as that might appear.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
