ACES ON BRIDGE

“Every nation should be judged by the best it has been able to produce, not by the worst.”

— James Weldon Johnson

This week's deals were all nominated for International Bridge Press Association awards in 2020.

For our first deal, take the South chair and see if you can play this doubled game as well as New Zealand's Michael Whibley did in the round robin of the Bermuda Bowl against Norwegian stars Boye Brogeland and Espen Lindqvist.

West leads the diamond two, third from an even number or lowest from odd. How would you play?

From the bidding, you can almost play double-dummy on the assumption that spades are 5-0.

Otherwise, how could East, a passed hand, double four spades after his partner's preemptive three hearts? So, the rest should be easy, right?

At least that was what Michael Whibley (winner of the 2019 IBPA Kerry Klinger Memorial Declarer Play of the Year Award) demonstrated with his impeccable play. He won trick one with the diamond queen, then cashed the club ace and king and the diamond jack. That was followed by a heart to dummy's ace, the diamond ace and king (East following suit all the way), then a second heart.

At this point, whether East's shape was 5=1=4=3 or 5=2=4=2, there was no way to prevent declarer from taking three more trump tricks. Declarer could score a ruff, reducing his trumps, then exit with a club. East could ruff and return the spade eight, but declarer would finesse the nine before exiting with the spade queen to East. South would then be sure to make his spade jack after that.

ANSWER: Lead the club king. A spade lead could be right, but a club lead will tend to be expensive only when dummy has the club jack and declarer has the ace. Meanwhile, it might be necessary to cash or to set up your side's club tricks on the go — before they disappear on spade or diamond winners. My advice is to try to find a reason to lead from honor sequences, not to look for alternatives.