ACES ON BRIDGE

“Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is the lightning that does the work.”

— Mark Twain

In four hearts, declarer won the club king lead in dummy and finessed the heart 10 immediately. He intended to ruff a club in dummy and therefore had to choose between allowing for queenfourth of hearts onside or a singleton queen offside, which was one-fourth as likely. He planned to pitch the low diamond on the spade king and could then set up a diamond trick by force.

When the heart 10 held, declarer gave up a club. West continued clubs, declarer ruffing with the heart jack to finesse the heart nine. When West showed out, South simply pulled the remaining trumps and led the diamond queen from his hand. East took that and returned a club, forcing declarer’s last trump. Declarer now advanced the diamond 10. If East had had to take the trick, he would have been endplayed to lead a pointed suit. But it was West who took the diamond king to shift to a spade. When declarer took the percentage play of finessing, he lost his contract.

South should have led a diamond from dummy at trick two, following the age-old principle of setting up the side suit before drawing trumps. Here, if West took the diamond king and pressed on with clubs, dummy would ruff, and only then would South draw trumps. After that, it would be easy enough to cash the spade ace-king, pitching a diamond, and drive out the diamond ace. The difference is that declarer does not suffer a force when he loses the first diamond, so he remains in full control.

BID WITH THE ACES

ANSWER: Double. Partner will not be expecting the world for this balancing action. You did not act on the previous round, and the opponents have passed the deal out in part-score, so partner is marked with some values. It is losing bridge to let the opponents play their eight-card fit at the two-level, so you are required to double now.

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