ACES ON BRIDGE

“To no man will we sell, or deny, or delay, right or justice.” — Magna Carta

English expert Andrew Robson is not only a fine player, but he also runs a superb bridge club in London and has made a specialty of writing simple and informative bridge books. Over the next few months, I’ll be running a few deals from his latest themed collection, “Counting and Card Placement.” See https://www.baronbarclay.com/category/books.

In today’s example, you reach four spades after opening one spade in fourth seat. West leads the diamond king and continues with the queen, followed by the jack to East’s ace, which you ruff. What now?

The odds narrowly favor playing for the drop in trumps. But “eight ever, nine never” is a big overstatement. If you knew who held the heart ace, it might influence your decision.

It is time for a discovery play, so at trick four, you lead a heart to dummy’s king.

Your rationale is that playing on hearts may tell you how to play spades.

If dummy’s king wins the trick, you can be sure West holds the ace — but you can play a second heart, just in case East is very smart, or very stupid.

Once West has revealed an ace in addition to his diamond sequence, East is heavily favored to hold the spade queen, or West would have 12 points and would likely have opened the bidding. So play spades by cashing the king and leading to your jack.

Note that if East turns up with the heart ace, you are still on a spade guess. But the discovery play cost nothing.

ANSWER: If you have to find your partner with length in diamonds or spades, the odds surely favor him holding diamonds, not spades. If he had spades, after all, he might have overcalled in that suit. Yes you need less in spades, but the odds favor the other approach.