ACES ON BRIDGE
Pablo Lambardi of Argentina has been a fixture on his country’s international team for a couple of decades -- remarkable for one who looks so young! He found an ingenious position in this deal from the finals of a major Pairs game in a recent Australian championship.
He held the South cards and declared one spade after opening one diamond and hearing one heart on his left, doubled by his partner, over which his call of one spade ended the auction. This bid can often be made on a three-card suit, since if opener does not have a heart stop or a rebiddable minor, this may be the least of all evils.
The defenders led four rounds of hearts, dummy pitching a club, with East ruffing in with the spade nine. Lambardi overruffed and led a spade to dummy and a club to the king. West ruffed and played the ace and another spade.
As the third spade was led, and won in dummy, what was East to discard? If he pitched a diamond, declarer would come to hand in clubs, ruff a diamond, and take two more club tricks in the ending, since both North and East would be down to just clubs. When East chose instead to throw a club, Lambardi discarded his blocking club ace and simply set up clubs for one loser.
Making one spade was a near top for him -- the field was going down in clubs on the North-South cards, often doubled.
ANSWER: Leading a club (whether you choose the ace or a small one) seems far too committal. Partner’s failure to raise clubs suggests he is not loaded for bear in that suit, and there seems no reason to broach diamonds either. My instincts are to lead a heart rather than a spade, since dummy may well be very short of spades and entries. Leading a heart won’t do much for declarer that he could not do for himself.