Aces on bridge

“If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.” -- Laurence Peter

When West leads the heart king against six spades, you must not ruff it with the spade two, or you will run into trouble when the trumps break 4-1. This is so because you will have no entry to the South hand to draw East’s last trump. If anyone holds four trumps, it will surely be East. So you should ruff at trick one with the spade king and continue with the spade queen and jack, West showing out on the second round. What now?

You can reasonably place West with 1-7 shape in the major suits, so nothing can be lost by cashing the diamond ace and king. If West follows to two diamonds, you will eventually play clubs from the top. You would then expect clubs to break 3-2 and -- more importantly -- there would be nothing you could do about a holding of jack-fourth with East. As it happens, it is West who shows out on the second diamond, suggesting that he has 1-7-1-4 shape. You play the club ace to take a look at East’s singleton, and then lead the spade two for a finesse of the nine. After drawing the last trump, you can confidently finesse the club 10.

Incidentally, if your trumps were A-8-6-5 in hand instead of your actual holding, you would again need to ruff high at trick one. This would boost your chances of success when West began with a singleton spade 10 or 9. You would still have the trump finesse available.

ANSWER:

Despite the absence of controls and high cards, you are best off raising to two hearts now, rather than passing and hoping to get a second chance. You do have some playing strength, and raising here does not promise the Earth. When both sides have a fit, that is the time to bid more, not less.