AceS On briDge

“Cleverness is not wisdom. And not to think mortal thoughts is to see few days.”

— Euripides

The main teams event at last year’s Yeh Bros Cup was won by Eric Kokish’s team. In an early knockout match, this board generated a big swing for them. With two deals to go, they had just taken the lead in the match, and their teammates had defeated six spades here. But as will become apparent, even four spades was high enough.

Roy Welland led a top club against four spades. South won and cashed the spade ace, then carefully did not play the spade king next — he needed the re-entry to dummy, and if he made that play, East would duck two diamonds, win the third and play back a trump, cutting declarer off from the diamonds.

But when declarer led a trump to the queen at trick three, that should also have been fatal; maybe he should have followed Andrew Robson’s incisive bridge tip: “If they pre-empt and lead their suit, play them for a singleton trump.” In fact, it is best to play top diamonds after one trump. Even if spades are 3-2 and West gets a ruff, you still have 10 tricks, in the form of three diamonds, two aces and five trumps.

When South went after diamonds at trick four, East should have set the game by shifting to hearts. After all, if partner didn’t have a top heart, could the game ever be set?

When East actually returned a club, declarer had the tempo to pitch two hearts on the diamonds, and was back to 10 tricks.