aces on bridge

“Our life is frittered away by detail . ... Simplify, simplify.”

— Henry David Thoreau

Today’s deal is derived from a hand from a North American Bridge Championship match in San Diego. The defenders’ sidesuit holdings have been edited to make my point more clearly.

When North hears his partner respond one heart, he might believe his hand is too strong for a splinter raise to four diamonds, because slam is almost cold facing nothing more than five hearts to the queen and an ace. Some people would prefer a jump shift in spades before jump-raising hearts. Regardless, South ought to reach six hearts today. Plan the play on a diamond lead.

Here’s what you should not do: Draw trumps. If you win the diamond and play the heart ace and king, maneuvering to get that diamond ruff has suddenly become just a little awkward. You can come back to hand with a third heart, but now if you play the diamond king and ruff a diamond, you will expose yourself to a force in diamonds. And if you play on the black suits, a bad break in either suit might prove fatal.

Instead, simply ruff a diamond high at trick two, then play two more high trumps from dummy. Finish drawing trumps if they break, but when East turns up with length, simply play on clubs. You will succeed unless one hand has a singleton club and four trumps.

If West turns up with trump length and the club ace is ducked for one round, you may have to guess whether to play on clubs or spades. However, East’s early discards will probably help you decide.

ANSWER: Partner’s (not entirely surprising) failure to compete any further in diamonds makes me slightly reluctant to lead that suit. A spade lead looks like it is going to find partner’s length. While it might set up a discard for declarer, the fact that West responded one no-trump makes this slightly less likely than usual, so I would lead the spade six.