Aces On Bridge

“Tempt not the stars, young man; thou canst not play with the severity of fate.”

— John Ford

Today’s deal saw a relatively experienced declarer missing his best chance in three no-trump. He ducked the opening diamond lead and won the next diamond in hand, then took a spade finesse and found that when East won and returned the suit, the defenders could get spades going before he could find a ninth trick.

Ducking the first diamond looks right, since there is no shift you fear. But next win the diamond king and lead a low heart from dummy, planning to duck if East follows low in unconcerned fashion. West will win his 10 and clear diamonds; you win in hand and cross to the heart ace to lead a heart toward your hand.

The advantage of playing on hearts before spades is that this line lets you fall back on the spade finesse as a last resort; the defenders surely cannot take more than two tricks in either red suit. However, there are plenty of lies of the cards where an unsuccessful spade finesse will set up an extra winner for the defense, which prevents you from playing effectively on the red suits.

One of the most important strategies as declarer is to take your chances in the right order. If the spade finesse is working at the start of the hand, it will still be working at the end of the hand.

But when you have to duck tricks in side suits in order to test them to maximum efficiency, you generally need to make those plays earlier rather than later.

ANSWER: It definitely feels right to lead spades, not diamonds. With a five-card suit and respectable spot cards, you need far less from your partner in the way of spade length and honors to get tricks going for the defense. (Plus, you have a sure entry to get you in.)