ACES ON BRIDGE

“I don’t mind being a symbol, but I don’t want to become a monument. There are monuments all over the parliament buildings, and I’ve seen what the pigeons do to them.”

— Tommy Douglas

Today’s deal comes from the 2009 bridge match between the Houses of the British Parliament. It features a play that might be easy to miss at the table in the heat of the battle.

West leads the diamond king and ace against four spades before switching to the club 10. The normal (if unthinking) line of play is simply to draw trumps and take the heart finesse. Can you do better?

Declarer should realize that with at least one sure heart loser, there is no reason to make the standard play in that suit. Try this approach instead: Win the club switch, draw trumps, then cash your club winners, ending in the dummy. Now play a heart, planning to duck the two, going up with the ace in any other case, then cross to dummy in spades to lead a heart to the queen if East plays low. That way, if East has the heart king, you will make the same 10 tricks as you would have if you had finessed.

However, where you gain is when West has king-doubleton, as here. West will win his heart king, but will now be endplayed into giving you a ruff and discard. When he plays a minor suit, you will ruff in dummy, discarding your remaining heart loser from your hand.

One other wrinkle: If East follows with the jack on the second round, you do have the option of ducking. He may have mistakenly failed to unblock this card from jack-doubleton, and then it is East, not West, who will be endplayed.

ANSWER:

My instinct would be to lead diamonds, trying to set up winners for our side in that suit before declarer starts building either hearts or clubs for discards. Your cards seem to lie well enough for declarer that an active defense is appropriate. The decision is close: With J-10-2 of clubs, I would have led that suit instead.