THE ACES ON BRIDGE

“All good is hard. All evil is easy. Dying, losing, cheating and mediocrity are easy. Stay away from easy.” -- Scott Alexander .....................

How will you give yourself the best chance in your no-trump game when West leads the spade king? You hold up the spade ace until the third round, leaving ast with no spade to play.

So far, so good. Now four diamond tricks will give you the contract, but you need to duck a diamond trick into East, the safe hand. Any ideas as to how to proceed?

If you simply play ace, king and another diamond, you will succeed only when East holds three of the five outstanding diamonds. A better idea is to lead twice toward the dummy, planning to duck if the lowest missing diamond (the seven) appears from West. So at trick two you lead a low diamond from your hand. If West plays the seven, you will duck in the dummy, knowing that East, the nondanger hand, will have to overtake. It makes no difference what East returns. When diamonds break 3-2, you will score four tricks in the suit and claim the contract.

Suppose instead that West inserts the diamond 10 on the first round. You will win with dummy’s ace and return to your hand with a club (or a heart) to lead another diamond. This time, West has to play the seven, or you will make all five diamond tricks. You duck in the dummy, and again East has to overtake with his remaining card. Once more, you have nine tricks.