ACES ON BRIDGE

East might have taken out insurance in five diamonds at the prevailing colors, and West might also have been tempted to bid again, but both settled for defending against four hearts. Do you think that should have been a winning decision?

West led the diamond queen, taken in dummy. Declarer overtook the heart jack and drew trumps before turning to the spade suit. It is tempting to lay down the spade ace first, but that cannot really gain anything and could lose a trick, especially since West followed to four rounds of hearts and thus had to hold very few black-suit cards.

Declarer duly started with a low spade to the queen. If East took that with his king, the spade jack would represent the entry to dummy for the marked finesse of the spade nine. If instead East ducked, declarer would continue with a low spade to his nine.

The contract could have been defeated, though. A diamond lead might have been right, but maybe West should have chosen an off-beat card like the diamond 10 as an alarm-clock signal to flag a spade ruff.

However, the club king lead would have defeated the contract if East had been on his toes. He would presumably play low on the first club but would then have to overtake the second to deal his partner a spade ruff. West could then exit with a diamond to extract the late entry from dummy and leave declarer with a certain spade loser.

Given how tough this defense is, EastWest might have been better advised to take the cheap save!

ANSWER: You do not need much to make game — just king-fifth of spades might suffice. However, if you make a splinter-bid of four diamonds to agree spades while showing your shortness, would partner get the bit between his teeth and drive you too high? Maybe a jump to three spades is a good middle road.