ACES ON BRIDGE

“In civil business what first? Boldness; what second and third? Boldness: and yet boldness is a child of ignorance and baseness.”

— Francis Bacon

In today's deal, even after uncovering four-card heart support and the club ace opposite, perhaps South should have been satisfied with four diamonds. As it was, he relied too much on his long clubs as a source of tricks. He offered six clubs as an alternative place to play in case North had length there, but North converted to six hearts.

West understandably missed the killing diamond lead, preferring to lead a spade around to South's ace. Declarer saw he could not duck a diamond and ruff one in dummy, or he would have to lose a trick in each minor. It was better to ruff spades in hand, performing a dummy reversal.

Two spade ruffs in hand would get him to 12 tricks, but the timing would have to be precise. If declarer were to cross to the club ace and ruff a spade, he would be unable to both give up a club and retain a late entry back to the long clubs in hand. If he ducked the second club, the defense might score a ruff, while the club king and another club would allow the defense to knock out the diamond ace.

Declarer would fare no better by reentering dummy in hearts to ruff a second spade.

The solution was to play a club to the 10 at trick two, remaining in complete control as long as clubs and hearts broke. South took the diamond switch, crossed to the club ace, ruffed a spade, went back to the heart king and ruffed the third round of spades high. He could reenter dummy with the heart queen to draw trumps, and he still had a club entry back to hand to run the suit.