ACES ON BRIDGE

This week’s set of themed deals is based on giving declarer losing options. If it looks as though declarer will succeed on normal play, you must do something to try to lead him down the garden path, but it need not be extravagant.

Our first deal is a very simple one, but if the defense is on autopilot, declarer will have an easy ride. The hand is taken from the 2020 Junior Camrose — the U.K. home international series.

Declarer arrives in three no-trump after an aggressive preempt and an equally gung-ho shot from South. He receives the diamond queen lead and observes that he will be in clover if the clubs come in. He therefore seeks to land his game when the clubs split badly.

Declarer wins the diamond king and leads a heart toward dummy’s queen, in search of his ninth trick. West swoops in with the king and persists with diamonds, taken in dummy as East sheds a heart. Now comes the heart queen, followed by the club queen and club 10. If East makes the automatic play of covering, declarer can astutely duck the lead into the safe hand, to protect against the bad break. Instead, East must play small!

At this point, declarer will surely put up a high honor, hoping for a 3-2 break. When the clubs fail to split, he can no longer succeed, lacking another entry to the South hand.

After winning the heart king, if West had shifted to spades instead of persevering with diamonds, declarer could get home by establishing the long spade in dummy.

ANSWER: A heart lead may represent your best chance to beat the contract since you only need partner to have the ace or jack, but it will probably cost a trick if partner does not have a top honor. So, at pairs, a second-highest diamond lead would be reasonable. If I did lead a heart, I would lead the queen, assuming the king promises a stronger holding than this.

If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, email him at bobbywolff@mindspring.com