ACES ON BRIDGE

A good defender is always looking to create opportunities for declarers to go wrong. South would appear to have no problem bringing home his heart game here, due to the fortunate lie of the trumps. However, a judicious false-card from West shunted declarer onto the wrong track. South opened one heart and, after a single raise from partner, plunged directly to game. On lead against four hearts, West cashed the spade king, then switched to the club jack. When it held, West cashed the spade ace and played a second club. Declarer ruffed and crossed to dummy with the diamond king, then played a trump to the queen, which held, East contributing the four, and West the jack. It looked to South as if East had started with three trumps. Therefore, he needed a further entry to dummy in order to finesse again. The only possible route was via a diamond ruff; for this to be successful, East needed to have started with at least three diamonds. Declarer cashed his diamond ace, but when he ruffed the next, he was overruffed by East’s king. If West had not played the jack on the first round of trumps, declarer would have had little recourse but to play the ace next, felling East’s king. Although diamonds had not been mentioned in the auction, West could infer that South probably held five, both from the bidding and the play to the first few tricks. He could see that dummy was otherwise unreachable, and from his own holding, he knew that his partner could overruff the third round.

BID WITH THE ACES

ANSWER: Bid four diamonds. You have enough to continue, but you should mention your diamonds along the way. This is a natural call, geared to helping partner judge what to do over the inevitable four spades. It does not set up a forcing pass, but with real extras you can always double four spades at your next turn.

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