ACES ON BRIDGE

“The better part of valor is discretion, in the which better part I have saved my life.”

— Falstaff

With both North and South having five hearts and a decent hand, it’s easy to imagine them going overboard, or at least to the five-level. However, at the table, both players exercised restraint, South down-valuing his hand out of a strong no-trump, and North merely inviting game. So now all South needs to do is make 10 tricks.

On the passive diamond lead, South should expect to lose a trump trick, so he must limit the loss in the black suits to two tricks. If he is not careful, he will also lose two clubs and one spade. The way to make sure of the contract is to force the opponents to lend their assistance and open up those suits to his advantage.

Declarer starts by winning the diamond ace and leading the heart jack, perhaps intending to let it run, but hoping East will incautiously cover from a doubleton honor. When the queen appears, South wins and cashes the diamonds before taking the spade ace and putting the defense in with a spade.

If East wins, he will have to open up clubs sooner or later. As it is, West wins and cashes the heart king, but must then lead clubs. Dummy plays low, and East can win the first club, but he must now concede.

If South had exited in hearts at trick five, West would have won and broken up the endplay by leading clubs. If declarer instead takes the spade finesse, either a club or the heart king followed by a second spade from West should suffice to set the hand.

ANSWER: Even though the opponents’ auction here would tend to get you to look at majors rather than minors, jack-fourth is hardly the most attractive of options. So I would lead from my five-card suit as being a far more promising line of attack than a four-card suit.