ACES ON BRIDGE

What’s the use of worrying? It never was worthwhile. — George Asaf

In today’s deal, South took a shot at three no-trump, deciding that his partner appeared to have some values since East had not tried for game. Alas, his cardplay was not as enterprising as his bidding.

Declarer won the first trick with dummy’s spade queen and advanced the diamond queen, contributing the two from hand after East followed low. When West discarded, declarer spotted his failure to unblock too late. He led a diamond to the eight and a club to the 10, hoping to develop an entry to dummy if West had the club jack and a higher honor. When East won with his jack and continued spades, South tried to sneak a heart through to the king, but East won that and cleared the spades. At this point, it was just a matter of undertricks.

Declarer had failed to allow for the 4-0 diamond division. He should have led the diamond six from dummy initially. Then he could have followed up with the queen, preserving the lead on table for a third finesse. Alternatively, he could have unblocked a diamond intermediate under the queen. Then the diamond six could have held the lead on the second round.

In addition, imagine declarer had played another club to East’s king upon winning the second spade. If East clears spades, declarer can succeed by playing a heart next. East wins and can only lead a red suit to allow declarer an entry for a third diamond finesse. East would need to cash the heart ace before playing a third spade, thus extracting declarer’s exit card.

ANSWER: Lead the spade ace. This will give you a look at dummy while retaining the lead. You can then plan the defense from an informed viewpoint. You could make a case for leading the heart ace, planning to decide whether to play on hearts or clubs, but if you are wrong, it may be too late.