Hand of the day #272
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff Today's deal comes from the U.S. trials where ...
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
As a defender, whenever you hold the trump queen, you look for ways to protect it. Similarly, when you can infer that declarer is trying to find the trump queen and you know your partner has it, go out of your way to suggest that you have that card. Surely one of the most imaginative ways to put declarer on the wrong track came on the following deal.
Opening Lead: ♦A
North-South reached the small slam in spades after South had shown a strong 3-5-1-4 shape. Gudmundur Arnarson led the diamond ace, which dropped declarer’s king. He could have continued with another diamond, in which case declarer would surely have guessed trumps correctly (since even 4-1 trumps onside might be negotiable via a trump coup).
But instead, Arnarson found the deeply devious shift to the spade nine at trick two. Declarer hopped up with dummy’s 10 and then decided to play a spade to his jack — can you blame him? This protected against the 4-1 splits — although it severely underestimated Arnarson, who would surely have pressed on with a diamond at trick two, had that been the case.
Had the Romanian declarer encountered the deal after Arnarson won the Bermuda Bowl in 1991, I doubt if he would have followed such a deeply unflattering line…
Bid with the aces
Answer: 3NT
You limited your hand at your second turn to a minimum overcall, and your partner has invited game, suggesting about 14-15 in high cards. In context, your hand is reasonably well put together, so you have just enough to accept the invitation: bid three no-trump..
This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.