ACES ON BRIDGE
Opening Lead: Heart ace
“Those that seek me early shall find me.” — Proverbs 8:17
The play diverged between the two tables early on in this deal from a teams match.
At the featured table, East showed a value raise to four hearts with a singleton diamond. But now, when West kicked off with the heart ace and another heart, Declarer knew that pitching a club on the second heart, to retain trump control against a 4-1 break, would not help. He would surely lose two hearts, a club and either a trump or a diamond trick.
So, he ruffed and advanced the club jack. West erred by playing low, and East won and played a diamond to the ace. South finessed the club 10, ran the spade 10 and then led winning clubs from dummy. Since West had not dropped the club queen on the second round of clubs, declarer assumed East had started with 4=5=1=3 shape. East had to ruff the fourth club; declarer overruffed, cashed the spade ace and then maneuvered to ruff a diamond in dummy and lead another winning club. East could score only his spade king.
At the other table,
East raised directly to four hearts at his first turn, then doubled four spades. On repeated heart leads, declarer pitched his club. He then won East’s diamond shift and continued with the king.
East ruffed and, from West’s carding, deduced that declarer had 4=1=6=2 shape. So, he cashed the club ace and led a third heart for a ruff-and-discard. South ruffed in dummy and led the spade queen and spade 10, both holding, but he could no longer ruff out West’s diamond queen. He had no way to avoid a penalty of 500.
ANSWER: While you may want to bid one heart over one diamond to reach a 5-3 heart fit, you cannot afford to do that here. Partner will be less ready and willing to introduce spades if he has them, and you do not have the values for a second action. You had better double immediately, thereby bringing spades into the picture. Nothing is perfect, but this allows you to reach a major most of the time when you have a fit.