Aces On Bridge

“If (the genuine realist) is confronted with a miracle as an irrefutable fact he would rather disbelieve his own senses than admit the fact.”

-- Fyodor Dostoyevsky

When playing a good contract, the onus is on you to work out what might possibly go wrong, then play to circumvent that misfortune in advance. If you find there are lies of the cards you cannot overcome, ignore them, and focus on the positions that allow you to succeed.

Here, for example, your partner sensibly drives you to six no-trump, although at teams, one could certainly see some justification in looking for a minor-suit slam. (One possibility, for example, would be to bid five no-trump to offer partner a choice of slams.)

Against the slam, the heart 10 is led, so before playing to the first trick, you place the heart ace with East. As such, can you see how the contract can always be made?

When you play low from dummy, East has to withhold his ace or you can claim the rest. Once your heart king wins, you take four clubs and find that suit breaking 3-2. Do not commit yourself yet, but simply cash three spades, throwing a heart. Then take the diamond ace and king. If diamonds were 3-2 or West had the guarded diamond jack remaining, you could now claim your slam.

Your misguess in diamonds may seem fatal, but remember that everyone is reduced to three cards. East has had to bare the heart ace in order to keep the diamonds guarded. So a heart to dummy’s bare queen and East’s ace will see him forced to lead away from the diamond jack in the two-card ending, giving you the rest.