THE ACES ON BRIDGE

“The trouble with people is not that they don’t know but that they know so much that ain’t so.”

-- Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)

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Against your four spades, reached after North’s cue-bid of two diamonds, which was artificial and said nothing about diamonds (it merely showed a high-card limit raise in spades). West leads a diamond to his partner’s jack. At trick two East returns the heart king. Plan the play.

This may look like a standard elimination-type hand (in which you eliminate hearts and try to duck a club to East to give you a trick in either hearts or clubs). However, with such small club spots in both your hands, that line is unlikely to work.

Instead, look at your diamonds. That is the suit where the good spot cards will come into play. Since the bidding and play thus far tell you that East must surely have the diamond ace, you can take ruffing finesses through him to establish discards for yourself.

Win the heart ace, play the trump ace and a trump to dummy, and advance the diamond king, ruffing out East’s ace. At this point you can lead another spade to dummy and pass the diamond 10, discarding a club.

West can win with his queen and shift to a club, but you win the club switch with the ace and cash the diamond eight, discarding your last club loser. You then give up a heart and ruff the last heart in dummy. You end up losing two diamonds and one heart, but no clubs.