ACES ON BRIDGE

“One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea.”

— Walter Bagehot

Against six hearts, West leads the spade four, which all but marks him as having started with a singleton. Plan the play as declarer.

Once you realize that you need one of the major suits to break 3-2, the play here is virtually forced. You win the opening lead with the spade king, cross to hand with the club ace, then lead the trump four to dummy’s eight. After throwing your remaining spade on the club king, ruff a spade with the trump nine. Next, you cross to dummy via the trump king, noting that trumps are breaking, and ruff another spade, setting up the suit. Then you can draw the last trump and play a diamond to the king.

Here, East will take the diamond king with the ace and play a club. You ruff this with your last trump, then cross to dummy with a diamond to the queen and cash the spade ace.

The last trick is taken by an established spade: You make three spades, six trumps, a diamond and two clubs for a total of 12 tricks.

Note that if you draw all the trumps early, your entries to dummy are compromised. You will be able to ruff out the spades, but you will not be able to get back to dummy to cash them. Similarly, if you play to ruff a diamond in dummy by playing that suit immediately, before drawing trumps, the defenders can arrange a spade ruff.

That line would at least work if West had the diamond ace, though.

ANSWER: It is tempting to force to game, but you don’t know which game you want to play. However, if you invite game in spades or no-trump, you are somewhat misrepresenting your assets. I suspect the least lie is to raise to two no-trump to show a balanced 18-count. This may lead to your missing a spade contract, but it still looks sensible enough. My second choice might be to invent a force to three clubs.