ACES ON BRIDGE

“Death never takes the wise man by surprise; he is always ready to go.”

— Jean de la Fontaine

Today’s hand posed a challenge in both the bidding and the play. Three no-trump is not a bad contract — it needs the opponent’s spades to split 4-4, or for the diamond finesse to win. Of the seven-card fits, four hearts may be an easier game to play, but five diamonds certainly has plenty of chances. At the table, though, the winning play was far from obvious, and declarer missed it completely.

Against the diamond game, West led the spade queen, and declarer felt that his best chance lay in ruffing spades on the table. He won, trumped a spade, came to hand with the heart ace and trumped another spade. Now, stuck in dummy, he cashed the club ace and ruffed a club. He followed with the diamond ace, king and jack, but when West took his queen, he was able to cash the spade jack and lead another spade. That forced declarer and allowed West to score his small trump to defeat the game.

It would not have not helped South to ruff only one spade before starting on trumps; then he would lose two spades and a diamond. But declarer can succeed by the unusual expedient of ducking the opening spade lead, a play cynics would say crops up more often in books than at the table.

Say that West switches to a heart; South wins the ace, ruffs a spade and plays a trump. He has retained complete control and loses only one trick in each of the minors. He emerges with four diamonds, four hearts and two black aces, plus a single spade ruff.

ANSWER: On this auction, calls in the minors should be natural, not an artificial relay. With forcing or even invitational values, you might have redoubled initially. In any event, with this hand, I’d be tempted to repeat my spades — this is a suit that looks like it should be trump.