Hand of the day #187
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff Every year the Young Chelsea Bridge Club hosts...
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
Both the defenders and declarers at the Dyspeptics Club are constantly under the scrutiny of their colleagues. The kibitzers tend to believe that it is better to comment and misanalyze than stay silent and be thought a fool.
On today’s deal the kibitzer commented afterwards that a good opportunity had gone begging. Was he right — and if so, what was the chance?
Opening Lead: ♥6
Against three no-trump West led his fourth-highest heart to East’s ace. South followed low, put in the heart 10 on the second round, and West took his queen and cleared the suit. South won in hand, crossed to the club king to take the diamond finesse, then took his extra chance of finding the spade queen doubleton to create an entry to dummy. When that didn’t work, declarer’s one remaining chance was to drop the diamond king. No luck — and declarer finished up with just seven tricks.
Let’s replay the deal on the lead of the heart six. When East follows with the ace, the rule of 11 shows South that West has all the top hearts. Whether hearts are 4-3 or 5-2, declarer cannot win more than one heart trick.
But that is not the full story. To create an extra entry to dummy, declarer drops his heart king under the ace! Now South can reach the North hand one more time by making best use of dummy’s heart jack to repeat the diamond finesse and bring home his game.
Bid with the aces
Answer: 5♣
This auction suggests five clubs, four diamonds and some extras (though not so much as a classic reverse) since your partner has forced you to give preference at an inconvenient level. Because the opponents have not bid and raised hearts, your partner looks to be short in spades and thus your two hands fit very well. So bid what you think you can make — five clubs.
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.