ACES ON BRIDGE

“The daring Darkwing Duck defies death yet again and defeats the despicable denizens of darkness!”

— Tad Stones

On today’s themed deal, we see an example where a defender must cover when declarer takes a ruffing finesse.

West does well to hit on the club 10 lead against four hearts, aiming to build tricks. Declarer takes East’s king with the ace (retaining a stopper in case West gains the lead next) before advancing the diamond jack, hoping to sneak a discard.

However, West should reflect on declarer’s motives. South would not play this way without the diamond queen, and the same can probably be said about the king, given that West holds the 10. There is thus a distinct danger of the actual position holding true. West should cover with the ace, or one of dummy’s club losers could bite the dust.

Declarer ruffs that and calls for the heart jack, again hoping to slip past the ace in order to reach his diamond winners. But East sees that his only chance is to find his partner with the club queen. He goes in with the heart ace, cashes the spade ace and returns a club, defeating the game.

Note that South tried his best to cloud the issue by advancing his lowest diamond honor. The general principle is to lead high when you want a cover, low when you do not. The heart jack was a nice move as well, hoping to convince East that South was finessing in the trump suit. Unfortunately for declarer, East had enough high cards to be sure his partner could hold only 2 more points. Those points needed to be in clubs to provide the two missing tricks.

ANSWER: Bid one no-trump rather than raising to two spades. You cannot show your hearts without vastly overstating your strength, and a pass would be cowardly with a primary fit in partner’s suit and such great shape. A simple raise is played as constructive in two-over-one style, so maybe responding one no-trump will keep the opponents out and allow you to steal the board in a major.