THE ACES ON BRIDGE

“Nothing needs a Trick but a Trick; Sincerity loathes one.” -- William Penn .....................

When dummy comes down in four spades on a top club lead, it is easy to see that there are now three established fast losers (two hearts and one club) and declarer has to find a way to dispose of his third-round heart loser.

The natural approach might be to win the club and duck a heart, but the defenders can prevail by continuing the attack on clubs. Now if South plays a second heart, East will win and play back a spade. If South takes the heart ruff in dummy, he can escape from the North hand only by leading diamonds, promoting a trump trick for West.

An alternative approach of taking the diamond finesse also fails as the cards lie, since the defenders now have four top winners, while ruffing a diamond before drawing trump seems to establish a trump trick for West. So what’s left?

The winning line is straightforward enough, but hard to spot. South wins the club lead and cashes the spade ace. When both opponents follow, he takes the ace and king of diamonds, then leads the diamond jack, planning to pitch a club if East follows low. This line virtually insures the contract no matter who has the diamond queen. If East covers the diamond jack, South must ruff high, then cross to the spade king to lead a diamond winner and pitch the club loser. No matter what happens next, he can lose no more than two hearts and one trump.