ACES ON BRIDGE

“Man needs to suffer. When he does not have real griefs, he creates them.”

-- Jose Marti

At last year’s spring nationals in Dallas, the Swiss Teams event threw up this technical problem, on what looks like everybody’s fourspade contract. Incidentally, the auction featured a Texas transfer. Yes, everything is bigger in Texas, but on this occasion, North was playing a style where a transfer and raise to game would have been a mild slam- try.

The defenders lead a top club and shift to the heart jack -- a normal, if unchallenging defense. You win the queen, then play the spade ace and a second spade. West follows with the 10, then discards a club. How should you take it from there?

It looks natural to try to find West with the diamond queen, but this is not much more than a 50 percent chance. If you misguess diamonds ( imagine the same layout, but with the diamond queen and five switched), the defenders will clear hearts, and then East may be able to ruff the third diamond to prevent you from discarding dummy’s heart loser.

The solution is simple: Cash the third top trump to prevent accidents, then take the diamond king and lead toward the diamond ace. If East ruffs in, you have no diamond loser. If East follows suit, you win the diamond ace and play a third diamond. The defenders cannot stop you from winning the heart ace and pitching a heart on the remaining high diamond. Even though they can ruff in, the loser has gone away.

ANSWER: It feels right to lead a trump here, as dummy will surely be very short in spades, and you may get the opportunity to keep declarer from scoring his trumps separately. Because you have the clubs under control, declarer is relatively unlikely to be able to pitch too many discards on that suit.