ACES ON BRIDGE

“You, that are going to be married, think things can never be done too fast.”

— Oliver Goldsmith .....................

This week’s deals were all played at the World Teams Championships in Salsomaggiore Terme, Italy, last year.

Almost all the North-South pairs in the Bermuda Bowl bid and made four spades here, but our declarer took his eye off the ball. See if you can avoid embarrassment he experienced. How should you play four spades on the heart jack lead?

The original declarer won in hand and led a club to the king. East took his ace and returned a club. Declarer won, cashed the club jack, and only too late saw that he might be in trouble. With no surefire entry to dummy’s hearts, he hopefully advanced the spade queen. When East held off, the contract was doomed. After winning the next spade and drawing dummy’s last trump, East got out with a club, leaving declarer to tackle diamonds from his hand.

Let’s try to do better: How about ruffing your winning club in dummy instead? Then throw two diamonds on the top hearts and finesse the diamond jack. There would now be only two trumps to lose.

Admittedly, this line risks East ruffing the third heart and later promoting a trump for his partner with a fourth round of clubs. So, instead, lead out the spade queen before playing the third club. If East ducks, simply ruff the third club. If East wins, declarer can draw a second round of trumps with the king before tackling the red suits.

Incidentally, if you play a spade to the king at trick two, East would win, return a trump and then draw dummy’s last trump upon capturing dummy’s club king.

ANSWER: Lead the diamond king. Dummy has shown the black suits, so with red-suit shortness in dummy, this is unlikely to cost a trick. By contrast, a heart could easily work out poorly, even if partner has a high heart. I might lead a heart without the diamond 10, but with it, the diamond lead should be safe unless dummy has the guarded jack and declarer the ace.