ACES ON BRIDGE

In a teams match, three spades was reached in each room after East had competed aggressively in the red suits. Both Wests led the diamond two to the queen, king and ace. Both declarers advanced a spade honor, won by East. Now the paths diverged. The first East thought a club shift could wait, as he had the club king-jack over dummy’s queen. He was to be sorely disappointed. When he returned a top diamond, declarer drew trumps and then played the heart ace and another heart, setting up a discard for dummy’s third club. The defenders could no longer unscramble their club tricks.

At the other table, East realized that South had produced the diamond ace in addition to the spade king and spade jack. What, then, was left for West? He must hold the club ace if the defense were to have a chance. East therefore shifted to the club king and another club, securing a third-round ruff. The subsequent passive diamond exit left declarer with a heart loser, for one down. Declarer should have eliminated diamonds before drawing trumps. That would have extracted East’s safe exit. After scoring his ruff, East would have to open up hearts or offer up a ruff-and-discard.

That is not the end of the story, though. East could have set the contract by withholding the diamond king at trick one. Then, declarer would not have been able to ruff a diamond before knocking out the spade ace, without releasing control of hearts. The endplay chances would have vanished.