ACES ON BRIDGE

“There are times to stay put, and what you want will come to you, and there are times to go out into the world and find such a thing for yourself.”

-- Lemony Snicket

The contract of four hearts has nine top winners, but the 10th trick is harder to find. The defenders have to steer clear of leading diamonds, but a normal line of defense will see West’s spade-king lead going to the ace. The spade four is ruffed; now how should declarer advance?

The first key play is to cash the heart ace and lead a heart to the king. Now, as declarer expects West to have the bulk of the defenders’ high cards and East has turned up with the spade ace, he should assume the diamond ace is offside. Since South needs a diamond trick for his contract, he must assume West does not have two out of the diamond queen, jack and eight.

South leads the diamond 10 from dummy (maybe East will forget to cover from honor-third or honor-fourth?), planning to let it run, but covering East’s honor if necessary. After the jack, king and ace have been played, a third spade comes back. South ruffs, crosses to the dummy with a club, and leads a diamond. He must guess whether to put in the seven or nine.

Say he gets it right and puts in the seven, forcing the queen. No lead can hurt South now, since dummy still has a small trump left on a spade return. Declarer makes five hearts, four clubs and a diamond for 10 tricks.

ANSWER: This is the same auction as in our featured deal, except that South is a passed hand. The choice is a two-spade cue-bid raise, or a fit-jump to three clubs, for which you would really need either a fifth club or a fourth heart. Without the club jack, a simple raise to two hearts would suffice.