aces on bridge

“Protection is not a principle, but an expedient.”

— Benjamin Disraeli

One of the secrets of declaring at bridge is to identify which of your opponents is the danger hand, and to take steps where possible to keep that player off lead. An example is today’s deal, where the contract of four hearts is touchand-go. The contract should always succeed if the spade finesse works, but what if it does not?

If West makes the normal opening lead of the club queen, declarer should let the queen hold. Since he has to lose a club and probably a diamond, he must direct his attentions toward not losing more than one spade.

There is a chance of developing dummy’s long diamond, but it must be by a duck into the nondanger hand, West. Meanwhile, declarer must keep East off lead, since a spade lead through South would be fatal if West has the ace. To cover all the bases, declarer wins the second club and draws trumps in two rounds. Then he eliminates the clubs and leads the diamond king, following up with a diamond to the 10.

This line succeeds when West had one diamond honor in either a two- or three-card suit. The reason is that if West has no diamonds left to lead, he must play a black suit and allow declarer to hold his spade losers to one. If West started with three diamonds, declarer will obtain his discard in due course.

Likewise, if West began with four diamonds and can exit with a diamond, declarer will cross to dummy’s trump and fall back on the spade finesse.

ANSWER: You seem to have four tricks in your own hand, and if your partner has an ace, you rate to defeat this contract easily enough. So you need to assume he doesn’t, and still find a way to set the hand. To my mind, the choice is between a passive spade or a top club; the chance of finding a diamond ruff here is extremely low. I would lead a trump, rather than a club, but it is close.