ACES ON BRIDGE

Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand.

— George Eliot

A little learning is a dangerous thing, they say. Consider this deal from a knockout match, where the defense against four spades at both tables began in the same way: West cashed both top hearts and shifted to the club king, taken by the ace.

At the first table, declarer took the diamond ace, then led the trump nine to dummy’s 10 to play a diamond toward his hand, in case East wanted to ruff in from out of nowhere.

When East discarded a club, South won with the ace. After ruffing a diamond with the trump jack, declarer returned to hand with a trump to ruff a second diamond in dummy. When East discarded a heart, declarer could now make only his two remaining trumps — he had lost trump control when he ruffed a club back to hand.

At the other table, declarer also led a diamond to the ace at trick four. However, instead of playing a trump, declarer tried to cash the diamond king.

East ruffed and played a club. Declarer ruffed this with the trump nine, then ruffed a diamond in dummy with the spade 10. Next, declarer returned to his hand via a low trump to the queen to ruff a diamond with the jack, thereby establishing two long diamond tricks.

Declarer still had a trump left with which to return to hand. He drew the remaining defensive trumps with the ace and king, then claimed the rest of the tricks. He had made four trumps, three diamonds, two diamond ruffs and the club ace for a total of 10 tricks.

BID WITH THE ACES

ANSWER: Here your first bid of one heart was fine, though with an extra queen, a call of one spade — planning to compete in hearts next — would have been right. On your actual auction, some people quite sensibly play a “next-step negative,” also called a Herbert negative, after the cuebid. If you can’t bid two diamonds to show this hand, you have to bid two hearts now, since two spades would show 5-9 or so.

If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, email him at bobbywolff@mindspring.com