aces on bridge

“An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.”

— Victor Hugo

Today’s deal shows what appears to be a relatively simple contract of four spades. However, the deal may only appear to be easy because there seem to be five top tricks outside the trump suit and the threat of only three losers (one in each side suit after a top heart lead). But that ignores the risk of the defenders cashing more than one heart if you draw all the trumps; or they may get a ruff or overruff if you don’t draw trumps.

The simplest way to play the hand is to assume trumps will break. After the heart king lead to your ace (ducking might permit the defenders a ruff ), the simplest plan is to cash the spade ace and king, then play on clubs.

East can take either the first or second round of clubs, and will play a heart when he does so. Dummy’s remaining trump can now be used to ruff the third heart. East overruffs, but that is the last defensive trick, since there are no trumps out and declarer has the diamond ace as an entry to dummy.

One trap to avoid here is playing three rounds of trumps before playing clubs. If you do so, the defenders may be able to cash one club and three heart tricks, since dummy will be bereft of trumps. Similarly, if you draw fewer than two rounds of trumps before playing two rounds of clubs with the cards lying as in the diagram, West may get a club ruff from the short trumps, then lead hearts to promote a trump trick for his partner.

ANSWER: Not all hands fit into the convenient algorithm of adding up the high cards and spitting out an answer. If your diamond nine were in clubs, I would probably pass two hearts, but your extra shape means you have enough to invite game. A case could be made for reraising to hearts to suggest six; but maybe a rebid of two no-trump more accurately expresses your values.