ACES ON BRIDGE

“Everyone is more or less mad on one point.”

— Rudyard Kipling

When this deal came up in the local duplicate, West led the heart king against four spades, East following with the queen, suggesting the jack, not suit preference. What would you have done at trick two?

Dummy’s clubs look threatening. It seems natural to go after diamonds, perhaps playing partner for both the queen and jack, before declarer can knock out the club ace. However, if East had both minor honors in diamonds, South could hardly have had an opener, let alone a four-spade call. Maybe you should continue with the heart ace, forcing dummy to ruff ? If declarer has only six spades, then East has three. If you shorten dummy’s trump holding, it may eliminate the entry to dummy’s clubs.

West did indeed lead his heart ace next — well done, up to a point, but declarer let it hold. He ruffed the next heart in hand and played a club. Whether West won or ducked, the hand was over. Declarer could draw trumps ending in dummy and discard his diamonds on the clubs.

Too late, West realized he should have continued with a low heart at trick two. If declarer decided not to trump, East could win and shift to diamonds before the club ace was knocked out. Curtains for declarer?

Not quite, if declarer inferred the 3-1 trump break from West’s line of defense. He could ruff the second heart in dummy, then knock out the club ace, win the spade return and, without drawing any more trumps, run clubs through East. If East were to ruff in, South would overruff and draw the last trump to run the clubs.

ANSWER: Lead the diamond ace. With the spade ace likely to be on your right, you intend to continue diamonds. If you can get partner in, presumably with the heart king, you may generate a ruff for the fourth defensive trick, but only if you keep the defensive communications open in hearts.