ACES ON BRIDGE

“Over my shoulder I see a rainbow.

Is it heaven’s way of sayin’ I can let you go?”

— Patty Loveless

On this deal from England’s Pachabo event, featured in Martin Hoffman’s excellent book “Over My Shoulder With Martin Hoffman,” North-south reached six no-trump. Declarer won the opening diamond lead and crossed to a top club. When he advanced the spade 10 from dummy, East covered, and South eventually needed to find the spades 3-3. When they were not, down he went!

Elsewhere, on the same diamond lead, declarer saw the problem of East having a doubleton spade honor. He cashed the club jack and crossed to dummy in that suit to lead a spade to the nine and queen. Back came a second diamond, and South went over to the heart ace to lead a spade to East’s king and his own ace. Declarer had 12 tricks, but after taking the spade 10, the spades would be tangled up, and he would not be able to cross back to his hand to reach all the winners. Down one.

The simplest route to success is to win the diamond opener and lead a low heart to dummy at trick two, then play a spade to the nine and queen. The best the defense can do is to return a diamond, which you win in hand and cross to another top heart to play another low spade from dummy.

East’s king beats empty air, and you take the ace and unblock the spades. Now you can come to the club jack to cash your spade and diamond winners, then cross over to dummy in clubs. An alternative approach is to lead a low club to dummy at trick two before playing a low spade from dummy, but that is a slightly more complex approach.

ANSWER: Lead the diamond ace. For this leap to game, West probably has five-card support. Thus, if left to his own devices, declarer will draw trump and run spades — your major-suit holdings certainly will not hinder him in this plan. You must not give up a tempo with a passive lead. You hope to score four quick tricks in the minors, and since partner may need to lead clubs from his side, the diamond ace feels right.