ACES ON BRIDGE

The art of the striptease can be perfected at the bridge table as well as in the nightclub. If you can draw trumps and leave yourself with at least one trump in each hand, you can often remove cards from unimportant suits and throw the opponents on lead. You can then force them to give a ruff-sluff or to open up a suit to your advantage. This strategy will also work in no-trump, though not as frequently.

In today’s deal, consider the play in four spades on a neutral trump lead. The correct approach after winning the second trump is to play the club ace and a second club, since this is the suit where there is no benefit in having the opponents tackle the suit as opposed to leading it yourself. East’s best play is to win the club and shift to the diamond 10.

There is no good reason not to finesse, but when

West covers your jack, you win the king and play two more rounds of diamonds.

East will win the third diamond and shift to a heart (probably a low one, since this would beat the contract by force if the heart nine and seven were switched).You run the heart around to dummy, capturing West’s jack with the ace, then finesse against the queen to make 10 tricks.

As a side note, if East shifts to the heart queen at trick eight, he presents you with a choice: Will you play him for both heart honors or just the queen? Unless East is an expert, assume he has both honors.

BID WITH THE ACES

ANSWER: Hands like this emphasize the necessity for Checkback Stayman, using the other minor as a forcing relay to learn whether your side has a 5-3 spade fit. If it does, you surely want to play in four spades; if not, three no-trump. So, bid two clubs and act accordingly over the response.