ACES ON BRIDGE

A man may be in as just possession of truth as of a city, and yet be forced to surrender. — Sir Thomas Browne

In today’s deal from a teams game, one pair came back to score up with what they considered a normal result in their game contract: North had opened a weak notrump and played four spades on a heart lead. He could not find a way to succeed after that start, but was disappointed to lose a big swing when four spades came home from the South seat in the other room on the auction shown.And it all came down to the play to trick one.

When you have this combined heart holding, you are happy to have the suit led around to — rather than through — your tenace. You are gifted a second trick in the suit, but that will not do you any good today. One discard is completely irrelevant in comparison to the avoidance issues in the minor suits.

See what happens if South wins East’s heart queen with the ace. After drawing trumps, declarer will run the diamond nine. East can win with the king and return a heart to West’s king, then a club shift will beat the contract.

At the table, South appreciated the necessity of keeping the danger hand, West, off lead. By allowing East’s heart queen to hold, communications between the defensive hands were cut. East could not effectively attack clubs from his side of the table. South won the heart return, drew trumps, then ran the diamond nine. East could win either the first or second round, but the defenders were limited to one club trick in each case.

ANSWER: There is no clear reason to get aggressive with a heart lead — nothing about this auction suggests we cannot beat three spades on normal defense. So it feels right to lead a diamond, but which? I tend to lead top of three small in a bid-and-raised suit. From a four-card suit, I would therefore lead the eight; the six might be hard to read if declarer has a singleton honor.

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