ACES ON BRIDGE

“I am the very slave of circumstance

And impulse — borne away with every breath.”

— Lord Byron

The right play in a suit taken in isolation may be very wrong in some contexts.

East could have made a lead-directing three-club bid over the artificial raise, but it might not have altered West’s choice of leads. Against four hearts, when West leads the diamond king, declarer can see four potential losers. The spade ace is surely with West, and two diamond losers seem inevitable.

Declarer could try to make something of dummy’s spades, and while one would usually lead to the king with this combination, it might be better in this case to run the 10 on the first round, hoping to pick up a minor honor in the East hand. Declarer could knock out the ace on the second round and then take a ruffing finesse through East.

That will not work here, though, since the defenders already have two quick diamond winners established. So, declarer must try for an endplay by ducking the first diamond. He wins the trump shift (as good as anything), unblocks clubs and then crosses in hand twice (once with a trump and once with the diamond ace) to eliminate clubs. Finally, he leads the third round of diamonds to West, who is now forced to open up spades so that declarer can hold his losers in that suit to one.

Note that it is crucial to duck the first diamond. If declarer had won the trick and embarked on the elimination, then whether he led the second diamond from hand or from dummy, East could arrange to get in with that suit and put a spade through declarer.