ACES ON BRIDGE

“Nothing contributes more to peace of soul than having no opinion at all.”

— Georg Lichtenberg

Today, when South opens one heart, his partner raises to two. After partner’s raise, the combination of South’s extra values and shape means he obviously has enough for game, and South therefore bids four hearts. In fact, opposite the right hand, South might think about slam — but today, even game is in danger.

After a top diamond lead, South must play to set up his side suit. After winning his diamond ace, South leads the club ace.

If only small cards dropped,

South might cross with a spade to dummy’s ace to lead the second club from dummy; however, the fall of the queen makes this maneuver unnecessary.

Leading from the dummy may help when East is short, but it does no particular good when West is out of clubs.

So South leads the club king, and West ruffs. West continues diamonds, and South trumps. South now gives up a club, ruffs the diamond return and draws two rounds of trumps with the king and then the ace.

This puts declarer in his own hand, ready to lead a fourth round of clubs. Declarer can ruff in the dummy, return to his hand with the spade king and lead the last club, which is now good. West can take his trump trick whenever he likes, but he cannot get anything else.

The key here is that South must avoid drawing trumps prematurely and must leave the master trump out while he takes his good tricks in the side suits.

The defender may ruff in with his top trump, but declarer keeps control by saving his own last trump.

ANSWER: South certainly appears prepared for a spade lead, and your diamond king appears to be well placed for declarer. If you trust your opponents, you should try the sneak attack of the heart six, hoping partner has the heart ace-queen over dummy’s king, or the heart king-queen plus a minor honor in diamonds.