ACES ON BRIDGE
We must plan for freedom, and not only for security, if for no other reason than only freedom can make security more secure. — Karl Popper
In today’s deal, you appear to have nine tricks ready to run once clubs have been established. So what is the danger? Clearly, the defenders might be able to run the spades. If you win the spade king, then arrange to finesse in clubs, West may get in with the club king and lead a spade through dummy’s remaining 10-third of spades. Now East-West can cash out for down one.
So your target is to hold up or protect your spade stopper. You can accomplish this by the somewhat unnatural move of ducking the spade at trick one.
The defense will almost certainly clear spades. If East does not play a third and fourth round of the suit, you will have tricks to burn.
But if he does, then after taking his spade trick, declarer should take the club finesse, confident that West will be out of spades when he gains the lead in clubs.
The holdup is correct because you know that it is only West (the safe hand) who can gain the lead in clubs. If the clubs honors were reversed, with the ace in dummy, winning the spade king at once would be correct, since East couldn’t play spades without setting up dummy’s 10. And if you are missing the club ace instead of the king, it is a blind guess as to whether to win or duck the first trick.
Strangely, if North declares three notrump on a low spade lead, the winning play of ducking at trick one becomes even harder to find, doesn’t it? ANSWER: Your partner rates to have four spades and four hearts, perhaps with a 4=4=2=3 pattern. So I can see the logic in leading a heart to try to set up tricks there. If you need to set up a slow spade winner, there may still be time, but this might be your last chance to lead hearts through declarer.