ACES ON BRIDGE
“A man cannot be too careful in his choice of enemies.”
— Oscar Wilde
Cover up the East-West cards and try to match South’s play in four hearts. West leads the diamond four to the king and ace. Back comes the spade jack.
Time to reassess: The shift is surely a singleton (or a devious play from the queen-jack); why else would East make such an unnatural return? If the former, then after drawing trumps, you finesse the spade 10 and have two homes for your club losers.
You cross to the heart king and, when that holds, stop to consider how the play might develop if you routinely play a second trump. A devious East might win the next heart and exit with a diamond, endplaying the dummy!
To prevent this, cash dummy’s diamonds now before playing another trump.
This is the Dentist’s
Coup, extracting East’s exit card. After knocking out the heart ace, you can ruff the diamond return, draw trumps and finesse the spade 10 for your contract.
Yes, West could have led a club to set the game by two, but East could have posed a different problem for declarer. He might have ducked the first trick, taken the second heart and only then led the spade jack.
To make it home now, South would have to win in hand and draw the last trump, then finesse the spade 10 before setting up diamonds. Playing a diamond prematurely would see East win and return the suit to endplay dummy as before. But if declarer finesses the spade 10 and cashes the ace, a diamond exit forces East to win and resurrect the dummy.
ANSWER: Rather than guess which minor suit to lead, you can simply lay down the spade ace to get a look at dummy. Then you can plan the defense. Because you can ruff the second spade, you should be able to keep declarer from taking a discard in time. In contrast, leading the wrong minor might be fatal.