ACES ON BRIDGE

With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict everything you said today. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

To mark the first full week of the new year, I’m going to try an experiment. In all the deals this week, declarer will be faced with an eight-card trump fit missing the king. But the individual facts and circumstances will produce different conclusions as to the best play for declarer.

Beginners are taught that the way to play a suit in which you have the ace, queen and jack is to finesse. So when you look at the North and South hands in today’s deal, you might assume that you are supposed to finesse against the king by leading the queen. But that would be a grave mistake!

With no side-suit losers in your slam, your goal is to hold your trump losers to one; the absence of the 10 and nine from your hand and dummy’s means that no matter who has the king, at least one loser is inevitable. You must therefore find the safest line to avoid losing two trump tricks.

If trumps are 3-2, your task is easy. But what if they are 4-1? You will see that no matter which four trumps East has, if they include the king, the contract is hopeless. But what if it is West with length? Running the queen or jack will not be a success.

Instead, cash the ace, then lead up to the queen-jack. If trumps break, you are home, and if trumps break 4-1 onside, then come back to hand in spades and lead a heart toward dummy’s remaining honor. The defense will be helpless.

ANSWER: Your controls and shape give you just enough to drive to game with a call of two hearts. This suggests a minimum of 5-4 distribution and a hand of this strength, leaving open all possible strains for game and slam. You won’t always be able to make game here, but you should be in one.