OPINION ACES On BRIDGE

“Most wretched men are cradled into poetry by wrong: They learn in suffering what they teach in song.” — Percy Shelley

Take the helm in four spades. Will you avoid the mistake the declarer at the table made?

When West leads a safe trump against four spades, you see you can pitch two of dummy’s clubs on the diamonds and then ruff a minor-suit loser in dummy. you also need to set up a heart trick in dummy to take care of another loser.

you draw trumps in three rounds, unblock the diamond queen and cross to the club ace to pitch dummy’s clubs on the diamonds, right? South played this way at the table but soon found that he was short an entry to table. He gave up a heart, but the defenders tapped the dummy, stranding the slow heart trick there. declarer had to go down.

There is no urgency to cash the diamond tops. after unblocking the diamond queen, concede a heart. The defenders now cannot force the dummy, so you can set up your 10th trick in hearts. Say West wins and plays another diamond: you win in hand, lead another heart, and then reach dummy with a ruff to shed a club on the third round of hearts.

on an opening club lead, you would need to take your discards immediately. The best line would be to win the club ace, unblock the diamond queen, cross to the spade queen and pitch two clubs on the diamonds. Then work on hearts, leaving dummy’s trumps for late entries. If the defenders force dummy twice in the minors, you no longer need to develop a heart trick.

This approach also works if the defenders win the first heart and shift to clubs.

ANSWER: Lead the heart three. It could be right to unblock by leading a high heart, but that is apt to confuse partner as to the count in the suit and might even give away a trick by force if declarer has the queen and not the ace. If my small heart were the eight or nine, I might lead either the king or the jack to keep partner from playing me for a small doubleton and misjudging the defense.