Bookworm Bridge Conundrums #41
This conundrum was written by Barbara Seagram's and was originally published in ...
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Today’s heart slam is a somewhat delicate one after West finds the most testing lead of a spade. Now the defenders are in place to cash a spade winner as soon as they obtain the lead. How should declarer cope with the possible threats in hearts and clubs?
Opening Lead: ♠J
Ruffing diamonds in dummy seems needlessly risky. Declarer can guard against a bad trump break with East having the length by leading out the heart king and ace. But then he is reduced to needing the club finesse, a 50-50 shot.
An alternative line is to forget about 4-1 heart breaks (trumps split 3-2 over two thirds of the time) and play to ruff out the clubs, using the heart ace as a late entry to dummy. Alas, with the cards lying as they do, no matter how many rounds of trump South draws before trying to ruff the third club, West can overruff with his heart jack and can cash the spade winner. Back to the drawing board!
The winning solution is to take the spade lead, cash the club ace, heart king and queen, then lead a club to the king and play a third club from dummy. If East discards, you can ruff, and draw the last trump to make 13 tricks. If East either plays the club queen or ruffs in with the master trump, you pitch your spade loser instead of ruffing. This way you can ruff the next spade in hand, draw the trump, and run the clubs.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 6♣
This is a quantitative sequence, not Blackwood, since no suit has been agreed upon. Your partner has suggested more than a strong no-trump, probably with a 5-2-4-2 pattern. Although you have no high-card extras, your quick tricks and powerful club intermediates suggest six clubs rates to be the best slam.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.
Club finesse is sligtly more than 50%, you can pick up a singleton Q from East, and your plan requires not only 3-2 in hearts, but also in clubs in order to work, so it's not just 2/3, it's 2/3 from 2/3, or 4/9. So whichone is better?
Great loser on loser play solution