ACES ON BRIDGE

“Information can tell us everything. It has all the answers. But they are answers to questions we have not asked, and which doubtless don’t even arise.”

— Jean Baudrillard

When West’s opening bid of one diamond is passed around to South, he should reopen the bidding with a double, planning to bid spades over a one-heart response. North has just enough to raise one spade to two, persuading South to bid game.

When West leads the diamond king, South sees he will lose two diamonds and must therefore hold his trump losers to one.

If there had been no bidding, South would plan to enter dummy with a club or a heart in order to lead a trump for a finesse of the queen at some point. Here, however, the finesse will surely lose, since West is likely to have the spade king with that opening bid.

After trumping the third diamond, on which East shows up with the queen, South can definitely mark West with the spade king. If East had 5 points in high cards, his partner would not have been able to open the bidding.

So South leads the spade ace, planning to lead a low spade if no honor appears, in the hopes that West was dealt the singleton or doubleton spade king. Luck is with South, as West follows with the spade king on the first round of trumps.

Now the focus shifts to picking up the trump jack-10. The simplest way forward is to unblock the top hearts and lead a low spade to the eight and 10.

South easily regains the lead and crosses to the club ace to pitch his fourth club on the heart queen. Then he draws East’s remaining trumps with the aid of the marked finesse.

ANSWER: When dealt a threecard sequence like we see in these hearts, my first impulse is to lead it, even when I have another bid and supported suit. It isn’t so much that I expect to set up additional winners; it’s more that a heart seems safe, and my partner will never play me for a suit like this unless I lead it right off the bat.