ACES ON BRIDGE

Manipulating a trump suit that includes the ace, queen and jack (with or without the 10 and nine) has many possibilities. Sometimes even the eight and seven play a role in determining best practice. Take a look at today’s deal.

With no violently bad breaks in the side suits, a four-heart contract appears to hinge on either the spade finesse or trumps playing for no loser. After a top club lead from West, there is no reason for declarer to delay going after trumps. What is his best approach to play the suit for no loser, in case the spade finesse fails?

As we have already seen, there are positions in which you should lead low to the 10, guarding against the singleton king with East. But that is not the case here; declarer must worry about the three small singletons with

West as opposed to the singleton king with East.

To guard against the more likely case, declarer must first run the trump queen or jack from dummy. When it holds, he must repeat the finesse by leading the other top honor from the board. Leading to the 10 on the second round of trumps would leave East with a sure trump trick today.

When East covers on the second round of trumps, declarer wins in hand, discovering the bad break, then knocks out the diamond ace and wins the club return to pitch a spade from dummy. He can take a third trump finesse and lead the spade queen from hand, losing to the king, but virtually ensuring he can take the rest of the tricks.

ANSWER: It would be nice if a double here were for penalties, but it isn’t. A double here would be for takeout. (Switch the diamonds and spades to produce a minimum example.) Generally, low-level doubles — especially those early in the auction and under the trumps — are more for takeout than penalty. I guess I’d pass; defending against two diamonds undoubled looks like our best possible result.