ACES ON BRIDGE

“A man wants no protection when his conduct is strictly right.”

— William Murray

This deal showcases an aspect of safety play technique — the avoidance play. When South opens one diamond and rebids two no-trump, North settles for the no-trump game.

On the spade-four lead, declarer can imagine at least one spade trick, two hearts, at least three diamonds, and three clubs, enough for game. Declarer plays the 10 on West’s low spade lead. East covers with the jack, and South must win this. It is best to win with the king, a good practice to hide the location of the queen. It is now clear that West has led from a spade suit headed by the ace.

South realizes that it will be very dangerous to allow East on lead too early, or a spade continuation might spell disaster. East is the dangerous opponent, and West is the safe one. So South must develop his tricks in a way that keeps East out of the lead.

Declarer begins by leading a heart to dummy’s king in case the queen falls. South then takes the diamond king, to allow for a singleton queen offside, and finesses through East. If West has the diamond queen, he will be able to take it but can do no harm, so declarer does not mind losing a trick to him.

When the diamond finesse succeeds, South repeats it and runs the diamonds, then cashes the clubs. Now he can judge from the discards whether to play for further overtricks by taking the heart finesse.

Note that taking a diamond finesse through West — or trying the heart finesse too early — would cause declarer to go down as the cards lie.

ANSWER: You have to choose between the majors. A heart is relatively passive, and a spade is more active — probably a good idea, given the threat of dummy’s long clubs. Here, you need your partner to have either five cards in the major you lead or any decent four-card suit. Of the two majors, I prefer a spade. It seems to require partner to hold less for it to work.

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