ACES ON BRIDGE

“Conflict will never be eliminated from human affairs. Conflict is simply the active expression of difference, and an essential part of human development. Without conflict, change would be impossible.”

— Philip Slater

West leads a fourth-highest club three against four hearts. Plan the play.

It is best to win the club with dummy’s ace and lead a heart toward your hand. When your heart queen scores, eliminate the black suits next. Cash the club king and then ruff a club in dummy. Next comes the spade ace-king and a spade ruff. Only now do you exit on a heart. You are dead in the water if East holds acejack-low, but you have a lock when he has the bare ace remaining.

You have only partially eliminated the hand, so when East wins, he happens to have the 13th spade to exit with. No matter — throw a losing diamond from hand to endplay him. East must either open the diamonds or give you a ruff-and-discard (in which case you would discard again from hand and ruff on table).

It would be a mistake to ruff the fourth spade before continuing trumps, as West would score an overruff.

Note that it would not help East to grab the first trump.You would win the club return and draw trumps. You would then cash the spade ace-king, ruff a spade, ruff a club and lead the fourth spade. When East followed, you would discard a diamond again. If East instead discarded, you would ruff and lead a diamond up, ducking if West played small, but otherwise covering his high card. That would block the suit if West had a two-honor doubleton.

The benefit from the recommended line of the partial elimination comes when East was dealt only three spades. Then he would need to rise with the heart ace to give the defense a chance.

ANSWER: One option is to start with a penalty double to establish that your side has the balance of power. If the opponents transfer to spades, then you hope partner can double the two-heart call to get you to hearts. The second is a direct call of two hearts, non-forcing. I prefer the latter, but much may depend on your partner’s opening-bid style.