ACES ON BRIDGE

“I let my golden chances pass me by.”

-- Oscar Hammerstein

Today’s deal comes from a correspondent, more in sorrow than anger, who has asked me not to name him -- or his errant partner. The opportunity for a “free finesse” seemed too good to miss for South on this deal. He had been given a far better chance of making our game than he deserved!

When West opened three clubs and East raised to five clubs, South should have doubled, after which North would have bid five hearts and might have struggled after a club lead.

But instead of doubling, South made the undisciplined bid of five hearts and everybody passed. West led the spade two and, rather naively, declarer tried dummy’s jack. He won East’s queen with the ace and drew trump, but there was no way for him to avoid the loss of a spade and two diamonds when the spades broke badly.

As North subsequently indicated, West had surely not made an opening lead from queen-third of spades. If you assume that the lead rates to be from shortage, the rest of the play is easy. You play low from dummy, win with the ace, ruff the two losing clubs in dummy while drawing trump, then get off lead with ace and another diamond. The defenders can take their two diamond tricks, but if West is left on lead, he has to concede a ruff and discard; and, if East wins the third diamond, he can do no better than lead a spade into dummy’s tenace.

ANSWER: While a heart lead is highly unlikely to be necessary, a case could be made for any of the other three suits. A club lead is the most passive, a spade lead the most active, while your diamond sequence suggests it is the one lead that combines aggression and safety. So I would lead a diamond honor, probably the king, unless our partnership defined that as promising three of the five top honors.