Aces on Bridge

The second of our weekly themed deals again features the art of maneuvering with a singleton trump facing length, when the key is to decide which finesse to take — if any — and why.

South upgrades his hand into a three-level pre-empt because of the vulnerability and his extra side-suit shape. North trustingly raises to game, and after a spade lead declarer can see that he may be home if clubs behave. If they don’t, he would like to play hearts for one loser. What is the best way to proceed?

We saw yesterday that with a singleton facing K-Q-10-x-x-x, we should lead to the 10. Our chances of success are clearly better today, given our better honors and intermediates.

If trumps are 3-3, it is a blind guess as to whether to lead to the 10 or the queen. King-third and jack-third to our right are equally likely. If East has a doubleton king or jack, you will capture it by finessing either the queen or the 10, then following up with the ace. What if West has the doubleton honor? You cannot succeed when he has the doubleton king, since even if you lead to the 10 initially, you still won’t be able to pick up East’s jack. The critical holding is the doubleton jack with West; you must lead to the queen, then follow up with the ace to drop the jack. In other words, all holdings but one cancel each other out, but an initial lead to the queen picks up one crucial holding not covered by leading to the 10.