ACES ON BRIDGE

Declarer must watch his entries here. South opens one spade, then forces to game with a jump to three diamonds over North’s one-no-trump response.

Now a call of three no-trump by North would be a gamble, while a bid of three hearts sounds more like a long suit than a stopper. Since raising diamonds seems a little precipitous, North gives preference to three spades, and South presses on to the spade game. Offering the no-trump game here would also be just fine; a partner with three trumps would always go back to spades.

When West guesses to lead the diamond seven, South assumes this is a singleton. So, he faces a diamond loser to go with a heart and two clubs. However, the diamond spots allow declarer to pick up East’s holding — if he is careful.

Specifically, putting up the diamond jack would not suffice. East would duck, and declarer, with only one entry in hearts, would be unable to play diamonds. He could not afford to play a diamond at trick two, or West would score a ruff.

The solution is to cover at trick one with the diamond eight, trapping East’s nine. South wins the ace, draws trumps and gets back to dummy with a heart to advance the diamond jack, picking up East’s queen.

Had West instead led a major, declarer would have been unable to pick up the diamonds as long as East ducked the lead of the first diamond honor from dummy. In effect, West’s opening lead provided declarer an extra dummy entry.

ANSWER: I would guess to lead the heart ace. The chance that I crash a trump honor in my partner’s hand is smaller than that the spade ace is costly or that I need to kill a ruff in dummy, or even that leading a minor might blow a trick for our side in that suit. Yes, the tempo might be costly, but having the spade ace, not the king, makes that less likely.

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