ACEs ON BRiDgE

“I have found you an argument; but I am not obliged to find you an understanding.”

— Samuel Johnson .....................

Against three no-trump, West did well to lead the heart 10, which was won in dummy. Declarer started with the club finesse. West won with the king and persisted with a low heart, hoping to retain communications. Declarer riposted by cashing two clubs to eliminate that suit and then exiting with a heart.

West could now cash his fourth heart as declarer let go of a club from hand and a diamond from dummy, but what could West exit with? A low spade would float around to declarer’s 10, while the spade queen would see declarer win with the king and then knock out the spade jack.

West tried the diamond king in the hope that East had the queen-jack, but declarer won and played back the diamond jack for his ninth trick. A small spade exit by West in the ending might have worked, though. Declarer might picture East with a doubleton honor, in which case he would need to rise with the king and play another spade.

If West had cashed the heart ace before clearing the suit, he would have avoided the endplay. South would have needed to infer that West had both spade honors and lead a middle spade from hand, covered by West, before eliminating clubs — but keeping an entry to dummy. Then he would play a diamond to the ace. The plan would be to proceed with the diamond jack, hoping for split honors, so that West would have to win, and lead back into the spade tenace.

(As the cards lie, South can succeed by cashing the top spades and endplaying East in diamonds.)

ANSWER: Show your second suit with two hearts. Your partner may come alive if he has a heart fit, but he would often pass two spades with the same hand. Indeed, two hearts could simply be the right part-score facing short spades. If the disparity between your two suits were much greater, you could choose to ignore weak hearts in favor of strong spades, but not today.