ACES ON BRIDGE

“When you begin a journey of revenge, start by digging two graves: one for your enemy, and one for yourself.” — Jodi Picoult

We showed a deal from a Vanderbilt match between Hawkins and Pavlicek yesterday. The Pavlicek team had their revenge a deal or two later when the defenders ducked one too many times, and Bob Jones read the cards accurately to land a difficult contract.

West led the club 10 to the queen, jack and two. Jones played the diamond jack, which West decided to duck. Next came a low spade from dummy, and it was East’s turn to duck. Declarer won the jack and cashed the diamond ace. Next came Jones’ singleton heart, and West played low — this was the duck that was fatal to the defense, though it was very hard to see why at the time.

The heart king held the trick, and Jones, reading the layout with great accuracy, cashed the spade ace, extracting West’s last exit card. Then he played a low heart from dummy to West’s ace.

West could cash the club ace and play the club 10 to Jones’ king, but he put her back in with a fourth round of clubs, forcing a lead away from the diamond queen at trick 12 into his king-10 of diamonds.

To defeat the contract, it was necessary for West to rise with the heart ace on the first round of the suit. From that point on, West could exit with the low heart or with a spade. (It would even have been possible to cash the club ace before playing her spade). At that point, Jones would have been unable to achieve the multiple endplays he needed.