ACES ON BRIDGE

Look into any man’s heart you please, and you will always find, in every one, at least one black spot to keep concealed.

— Henrik Ibsen The spots can sometimes be manipulated to create entries, as here. Ace-fourth is a highly unattractive lead against notrump. It often gives a trick away (as here) and is rarely necessary to set the contract. There is usually time to switch attacks later in the hand. So, West chooses the club 10 — his best shot with the sight of all four hands, though a small club would be my choice.

Declarer would like to work on hearts first, then finesse in one of the pointed suits. The best way to tackle hearts is to lead up to the honors three times, making whenever East has the ace or the suit splits. There are three sure club entries to North, but declarer also needs to lead a pointed suit from dummy later, so he would like a fourth club entry.

He starts by taking dummy’s club king, unblocking his seven. A heart to the king is followed by a crafty club three to dummy’s six.

( Who would lead the club 10 from 10-third or a doubleton?) When the six holds, declarer plays another heart, followed by a club across and a third heart. East wins and exits in hearts, leaving declarer one more hurdle. After playing another club to dummy and seeing East pitch a second spade (having thrown a diamond before), declarer leads a spade to the king. West can win and return a spade, but East then has to shift to diamonds, giving South a second bite of the cherry.

West could have inserted the club nine at trick three with success. Declarer’s club eight would then block the suit, and he would struggle to take nine tricks. ?

ANSWER: This hand is a bit light, but the shape is nearly perfect for a takeout double. Hopefully, partner can compete the part-score, but if he cannot, you will be glad that you chose to act sooner rather than later. Even facing a passed hand, I might risk the double; “too dangerous” is no excuse — and this is not all that dangerous.