ACES ON BRIDGE

“It is better to remain silent than to speak the truth illhumoredly, and spoil an excellent dish by covering it with bad sauce.”

-- St. Francis de Sales

With his best hand for months at the rubber bridge table, South criticized his partner’s bidding as soon as he saw dummy.

When South produced his second slam try and North jumped to slam, South could not bid on. But North should have bid six clubs over the five-diamond cue-bid. Had North done so, and then bid six hearts over six diamonds to show the thirdround control, his side might have reached the respectable grand slam.

After winning West’s diamond king lead in six spades, South played two top trumps to reveal the bad break. Suddenly, there were problems in even the small slam, and declarer continued with the heart ace and a heart to the queen. He would have been home if the jack had fallen, or if the suit had divided 3-3, or even if East had had to follow to the second heart. However, as the cards lay, East was able to ruff the heart queen and return a trump, and, eventually, the defenders came to another trick.

Declarer had mistimed the play badly. With two entries to the table, he should have tackled the hearts by first leading toward the queen. When the second round is led from dummy, it cannot help East to ruff a loser. So he must discard, and now after winning in hand, South re-enters dummy with the club king for another heart play. Again, East cannot profitably ruff, and dummy still has a trump left to take care of the losing heart. East can overruff, but declarer has the rest.

ANSWER: With a choice of four-card majors, which is the better honor to lead from? Imagine partner with a four- or five-card holding in one major or the other; wouldn’t you think it was easier to set up spades than hearts? I would. Conversely, if my spade king were the ace, I might lead a heart, relying on getting in with my side-suit ace, to try to cash out the hearts.