ACES ON BRIDGE

“There is always a countermove, always an escape or way through. No one said it would be easy and of course the stakes are high, but the path is there for those ready to take it.”

— Ryan Holiday

Let us look at the contract of four hearts after the lead of the club queen to the ace. At trick two, declarer must play a spade, to preserve entries for the elimination that is to come. East takes the spade king with the ace, and now a diamond shift is the only chance to set the game.

If declarer wins this and draws trumps, he will surely go down, since he will strip the hand and play a diamond, and West will cash three diamonds for down one.

So say South ducks the diamond. If East is left on play, he can do no better than exit in a black suit. Declarer draws trumps, cashes the remaining black winners and takes the diamond ace to find the bad news. Then he takes his one remaining chance when he exits from hand with the spade 10, pitching a diamond from dummy. East can win, but must now surrender a ruff-sluff, and dummy’s remaining diamond loser goes away as declarer ruffs in hand.

West should find the defense to beat the game at trick three. Once his partner has produced the spade ace and diamond queen, declarer must have all the missing high cards, and four hearts. The only chance for the defenders is for West to overtake the diamond queen and give his partner a ruff. With three tricks in the bag, a passive exit from East leaves West with a diamond winner and East with the spade jack, to counter declarer’s pressure in the endgame.

ANSWER: After you have transferred to hearts and partner has obediently completed the transfer, you want to offer a choice of games. Diamonds is highly unlikely to be the right spot, so simply bid three no-trump and let partner pick where he wants to play. If your diamonds were better and your spades worse, you might feel differently about bidding your second suit.