ACES ON BRIDGE

“Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy.”

— John Milton

Take West’s cards for a defensive problem here, defending against four spades doubled. You reasonably lead a trump to trick one, and declarer wins in hand as partner plays a suit-preference five. At this stage, you need to plan the defense, so take some time out.

Declarer plays a second trump; which heart do you discard — or if not a heart, what is your choice? At trick two, East produces the spade three. Declarer now plays a diamond from dummy to partner’s three (count), his own eight and your 10. What now?

If you lead a low heart, your partner’s king loses to the ace. Declarer cross-ruffs two hearts and two diamonds, then leads a heart from hand and discards a club from dummy. Alas, you are left on play, to open up clubs and concede the contract. The spot cards played in diamonds marked you with your actual shape.

You could have avoided this problem by throwing a club away at trick two — if declarer has club length, you surely have the contract beaten in your own hand. If you retain your “idle fifth” heart, declarer is helpless. When thrown in with the fourth heart, you just exit with the fifth heart. Of course, if you do let go of the heart early, declarer may simply ruff the fourth heart in the ending and lead a club from dummy. Now your partner has to put up the club jack to keep you from being endplayed.

I suppose East could have risen with the diamond ace and shifted to the club jack at trick three, but that is hard to do.