ACES ON BRIDGE

It never does any harm to go over the basics from time to time. Today’s deal features points of interest in both the bidding and play. First, let’s look at what actually happened at the table. South opened a strong no-trump and played there on a spade lead to the jack and king. (The king is the right card to encourage both defenders to continue the suit since West might think his partner had the queen.) Declarer played the diamond king; East won and naturally continued spades rather than finding the killing shift to clubs. Declarer won with the ace and advanced the diamond nine, letting it run when West pitched a heart. East won with his jack and shifted to clubs, holding declarer to eight tricks. Now let’s look at the auction: As North, I would definitely transfer to diamonds (prepared to play my long suit) and keep the opponents out of the major suits. This may not always work, but it is the percentage action. Against the no-trump contract, East goofed when he won the diamond ace on the first round of the suit. If he ducks, he retains control of the suit, holding declarer to just one trick in diamonds, rather than four. If East had ace-third, he would never have taken the first round of diamonds; his potential second winner in the suit should not have affected that decision. In general, ducking an ace over the king-queen is often a good idea when you know declarer does not have a singleton — and maybe even when he does.