Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
ACES ON BRIDGE
“Young men’s minds are always changeable, but when an old man is concerned in a matter, he looks both before and after.” — Homer
The play of today’s deal is merely a matter of looking ahead a few steps.
North has just enough for a limit raise, but with a minimum and no extra shape, South declines the invitation.
On West’s lead of the heart nine, declarer sees the urgent need to pitch a club on a diamond before the defenders can establish two tricks there, should the club king be with West. The third heart can eventually be ruffed in dummy.
South wins the first trick with the heart ace and immediately leads the diamond jack. When East refuses the trick, South continues with another diamond. This time, East wins with his ace.
East returns the club jack, and South tries the queen, covered by the king. Declarer ducks this in dummy in case West fails to return the suit and diamonds are 5-2, but West persists with the club seven. Declarer takes that with dummy’s ace and pitches a club on the diamond king. Now we can see why declarer led diamonds immediately, even before drawing trumps, to establish dummy’s diamonds before the opponents could set up and cash their club tricks. South has barely managed to win this race. If he had gone after trumps at his first turn, the opponents would have been a tempo ahead.
After cashing the diamond king, declarer turns his attention to trumps. The spade king forces out the ace. South trumps the next club and draws trumps. One trump is then left in dummy to take care of South’s last heart. ANSWER: Lead the heart seven. This is not so much to threaten a ruff as to give nothing away. After your weak jump overcall, declarer would probably play partner for any stray heart honors if left to tackle the suit himself, so a heart lead is relatively unlikely to cost a trick, while being the suit your partner is most likely to hold strength in.