ACES ON BRIDGE

“One must have a good memory to be able to keep the promises one makes.”

— Friedrich Nietzsche

South demonstrated how much his side-suit shape was worth when he pushed to game opposite a simple raise. At trick one, declarer realized that he might need to bring the clubs in without loss, since even if he could score three diamond ruffs in hand, he wouldn’t have 10 tricks. However, another, better approach might be to set up dummy’s diamonds instead.

So South won the second heart and led the diamond nine to dummy’s queen, in an attempt to ruff down honor-third diamonds on his left. He would also succeed against East holding ace-kingthird. East took his ace and forced dummy with a heart. Then declarer ruffed a diamond and switched horses by playing the trump ace and king and another trump.

The danger in ruffing another diamond was that if the king did not come down, declarer would need to bring the clubs in. By conceding a trump trick at this stage, he retained the chance of ruffing out the diamond king, should the club queen be onside, but it also increased his chances of squeezing the defenders.

Had West taken the third spade, he would have had to open up clubs for declarer and leave him in good shape. As it was, East took the third trump and continued the heart force. However, that was too much for West to bear. He had already let go of a diamond and now had to spare a club. Declarer could then finesse the club jack and run the suit.

ANSWER: Pass. The singleton diamond is a serious handicap for play in diamonds or no-trump. Even with the aces and kings, this 10-count does not offer enough play for game, so you should not issue an invitation. Partner probably has at least six diamonds, and his suit will hopefully not be terrible; so this should be as good a spot as any.