ACES ON BRIDGE

Even the most far-sighted of defenders can’t see each other’s hands, but they can often show precisely what they have, as long as they put together a sensible suite of agreements. A sound agreement is that if you lead an anti-system high honor — when your normal style is to lead the king from A-K-x, but you lead the ace and follow with the king — it shows the bare ace-king. Equally, if you lead the ace from ace-king, then switch to another suit, that promises a singleton in the second suit. This agreement is critical to defeating three hearts here, which looks like a solid enough contract, with the only worrying feature being possible ruffs for defense. This pair of defenders was playing king from ace-king, so when West led the diamond ace, East was immediately alerted to the possibility of there being a possible ruff for the defenders in either diamonds or spades. Declarer’s concerns were soon realized when, at trick two, West switched to the spade three. East won with the ace, and although South tried to muddy the waters by following with the five, concealing the deuce, East was not fooled. West would have cashed both his diamonds if he had a doubleton, so his short suit had to be spades. East returned his lowest spade, the four, suit preference for clubs. West ruffed and, trusting his partner’s signal, underled his club king. East won with the ace and returned another spade. West’s second ruff saw the contract drift one down. Of course, if West tries to cash a second diamond, declarer waltzes home with 10 tricks.