ACES ON BRIDGE

Today’s hand is another example of the power of spot-cards in defense. West opens a second-highest heart eight against three no-trump, declarer winning dummy’s heart queen before advancing the diamond queen. Since West holds at most four points, his heart eight cannot be fourthhighest. Declarer is marked with the top hearts and must have a reason to sacrifice an entry to dummy.

If South held a doubleton diamond, such that a defensive duck could cut his communications in diamonds, he would have kept the heart queen in dummy. So, East can deduce to win the first diamond in case declarer is ready to cash out. Spades certainly offers the most potential for the defense, and East must switch the attack to that suit at once. He thus plays the spade 10 to guard against an ace-jack-low or king-jacklow on his left. Declarer plays low, then inserts the jack on the next round, trying to cut the defensive link, in case the hand with the long spade does not hold the diamond ace. This would also block spades if West held honor-doubleton — a good try. On this lie of the cards, however, the ducks do not help declarer. West clears the suit, and East can regain the lead to cash the spade queen.

It would be right to switch to the spade three at trick three only if West had precisely honor-jack doubleton of spades. He could then win the ace or king and return the jack, which would be overtaken by East, who would still have the 10 and eight. Such a layout is far less likely, relatively speaking.