ACES ON BRIDGE

Hands from team matches where a swing comes from a different line of play or defense often yield interesting discussion points. Today’s deal saw identical auctions, with South declaring three no-trump on a fourth-highest spade lead to East’s ace. Yet one table made their game, and one table went down.

Where the defense prevailed, East captured the spade with his ace and shifted to the diamond queen, ensuring four tricks in that suit whether South covered or not. When West complimented his partner, East remarked that this had hardly been a challenge, as after South followed with the spade two at the first trick, the three of spades lead could only be fourth highest from four, marking declarer with four spades. Since the clubs were an obvious danger, his logical play at trick two was the winning one.

And that is the point of the hand: In the second room, South diagnosed the danger before he played from dummy to trick one. He could see that if he won the first trick, the game would be very straightforward, but if East had the spade ace, he might need to be deflected from the winning defense. So he craftily followed with the spade nine from hand to trick one under the ace.

East now hoped his partner had five spades, and that continuing spades might allow West to cash out the spades or at least set up the suit. After a spade continuation, South played low from hand and emerged with 10 tricks.

ANSWER: North has shown real extra values in a three-suited hand with either three diamonds and one club or 5-4-4-0 distribution. Your assets seem to be working reasonably well in context. Should you drive to game, and if so, which? I say yes, and I think three no-trump will be easier to play than four spades. Without your decent clubs spots, you might feel different.

“I never saw any good that came of telling truth.” — John Dryden