ACES ON BRIDGE

As South, you venture a fivediamond overcall over four spades. The alternative is to pass and defend, but that will not score you a game bonus. Today, East might try five spades in balancing seat, but he chooses to defend. How should you play your game after the defense of two top spades from West? With a sure diamond loser, you must also get rid of your slow club losers.

One loser can go on the heart queen, but if the heart jack does not drop in three rounds, you may have to ruff it out for a further discard.

It is unlikely you can safely pick up king-queen-low of diamonds onside. Besides, West might have competed to five spades if he had a void in your suit, or East might have doubled.

You therefore lay down the diamond ace, fetching the king from East, before turning to hearts. You cash the ace and then lead one to the king, everyone following. Now you must resist the temptation to cash the heart queen! If a defender were to ruff, you would be an entry short to set up and enjoy the 13th heart. Instead, ruff the third heart and force out the diamond queen, establishing the entry to dummy you need. Note that West could have put you under pressure by switching to a club at trick two if he believed his partner had shown five spades with a count signal. Then you would have had to finesse the heart 10 on the second round — easier said than done. However, if you deemed West’s club 10 to be from shortness, leaving East with 10 black-suit cards, it would not be unreasonable to take the heart finesse.