ACES ON BRIDGE

“Good men must not obey the laws too well.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

In today’s entry in our theme of surrounding plays, North forces to game showing spade support, but neither player is tempted to advance past four spades; however, the matching distributions make even that contract a challenge.

South takes the heart king lead with his ace and draws trumps in two rounds. He then plays the club ace-king, followed by a heart to West’s queen. West cashes the club queen but then must tackle diamonds.

East must have the diamond king, plus at least one key intermediate, to keep declarer from picking up the suit for one loser.

As we shall see, the eight may suffice for East.

If West exits with a low diamond, South plays small from dummy, forcing East’s king.

A finesse of the diamond jack then provides the 10th trick. West might instead exit with the diamond 10: a good try, but not quite good enough. The 10 is covered by the jack and king, then East must lead away from his diamond eight. If declarer guesses to duck, his game will come home.

Instead, West must exit with the diamond queen! Declarer has to win the ace, but he must then lead the suit himself, conceding two tricks to the defense.

Declarer can, however, come out on top if he retains one or both top clubs in hand before exiting in hearts. West must make the same diamond-queen play, but declarer counters by winning the ace and playing the clubs, throwing West on lead to yield a diamond trick (if he guesses well) or a ruff-and-discard.

ANSWER: Bid one heart. With a five-card suit and some shape, it is losing bridge to pass a one-level opening. You could easily make game, and a low-level response is relatively safe; this could also impede the opponents if it is their hand. Competitive auctions are always harder to judge than uncontested ones. Your diamond tolerance makes this route more attractive and safer.