ACES ON BRIDGE

Achievement: the death of endeavor and the birth of disgust.

— Ambrose Bierce

Both tables arrived in four spades here, on the lead of the club two, but with very different results.

The first declarer won the trick with the queen in hand, then cashed the spade king and played a spade to dummy’s ace. The 4-1 trump break meant that he could now muster no more than nine tricks.

At the second table, South also expected the low club lead to be a singleton, but took care to allow for trumps as well as clubs to be breaking 4-1. He, too, won the first trick in hand and cashed the spade king. But instead of continuing with a second trump at trick three, this South led his last club. West saw that ruffing in would be pointless, so he discarded. Dummy’s club king held, and next came a low club, ruffed high. A spade to the jack was followed by the club ace, a diamond departing from hand. West ruffed and switched to a heart; East won and shifted to the diamond queen, but South rose with the ace, then drew the last trump with dummy’s ace and discarded two red-suit losers on the established clubs.

If declarer had played for a heart ruff in dummy instead, by leading a heart to the jack at trick two, East would have been able to win and switch to the diamond queen. Declarer would be unable to duck, lest East give his partner a club ruff, but to win the diamond ace and play the heart queen from his hand would have been equally unsuccessful, as East would retain a diamond entry for the club ruff.

ANSWER: Lead the spade queen. You may not get to cash even one diamond, so you had better find your major-suit tricks while you can. Even if the singleton heart lead hits partner with the ace, you will need another trick from somewhere. Meanwhile, a heart lead could easily save declarer a guess or a critical tempo. Your best shot is to play partner for the spade ace, or for the king plus a heart stopper.