Aces on Bridge

Today is our third themed deal of the week, in which we are looking for the most effective way to handle a suit where dummy has a singleton.

Unlike in chess, where thematic approaches tend to be relatively constant from game to game, in bridge it is often difficult, and sometimes nigh impossible, to extrapolate from one example to the next.

Here you declare four hearts on the lead of the spade jack. You win the trick with dummy’s ace and have to tackle the trumps to avoid losing more than two trump tricks.

In the absence of a vile side-suit break, you would appear to be home no matter what you do if trumps are 3-3, and virtually sunk if trumps are 5-1. What that means is that you should focus on how to negotiate 4-2 trumps.

There are only two serious lines to consider: The first is leading to the jack, then following up with the ace. The second is leading to the ace, then leading out a low card. Cashing the ace and leading out the jack or 10 never gains and frequently loses.

Of the two lines, the first picks up six different positions where East has a four-card suit with both honors, but loses to eight lines where West has a doubleton honor. The second line is the mirror image of that, winning in the eight lines where the first fails, and losing to the six variations where the first succeeds.

So, the better line is to lead toward the ace (maybe East will err and split his honors), then lead low from hand.