ACES ON BRIDGE

“One road leads to London One road leads to Wales My road leads me seawards To the white dipping sails.” — John Masefield

This hand may seem like smooth sailing at first glance, until a bad trump break comes to light and forces a change of tack.

West's three-heart opening is the middle-of-the-road action at these colors. Some would try four hearts, making it more difficult for the opponents to reach spades, but who is to say they can make a spade game on a possibly horrendous trump split? North does not quite have enough for a takeout double, but South is there with a three-spade balance anyway, raised directly to game.

Declarer wins the club jack lead in hand and lays down the spade ace, ready to draw trumps and claim. When West shows out, declarer must go back to the drawing board. He cannot expect to ruff a heart in dummy without suffering an overruff, but he could seek to “trade ruffs” by throwing a diamond on the third heart and ruffing a diamond on the table. That would work today, but East could easily have only four diamonds, whereupon he could throw two diamonds on the hearts to void himself of the suit.

The safest line is to ruff two clubs in the closed hand, performing a dummy reversal (playing to take ruffs in the long hand, not the short one). Declarer crosses to the club king and ruffs a club, then returns to dummy with a top diamond to lead the fourth club. If East discards, declarer scores the spade five and has 10 tricks. If East ruffs in, declarer overruffs and draws trumps. He is sure to take 10 tricks either way.

ANSWER: You hope to be back on play with the spade king soon and must work out where your second trick is coming from. Partner did not double five diamonds, so a diamond is unlikely to be necessary. As for hearts, declarer should have a control for his drive to slam. Try a club, hoping to give partner a ruff on the second round. If playing fourth-highest, maybe an ingenuous club two won't give the game away.