ACES ON BRIDGE

“Never before have we had so little time in which to do much.” — Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Against three no-trump, West’s heart two lead is won by East’s ace, and back comes the heart three. Declarer can see three heart losers, plus one for the missing diamond ace, so he cannot afford to lose a club trick. He must rely on the diamond suit to come in for one loser, and there is only one layout that will oblige: a doubleton diamond ace with West.

Declarer must arrange to make the first diamond play from his hand. He will also require another entry to get back to his long cards.

The solution is to put the heart queen up at trick two. Now the defenders cannot clear hearts without allowing declarer on lead. Say West wins the heart king and plays a third round. Now declarer leads a diamond to the king and ducks the next round.West can do no better than win his bare ace and cash a heart.

Had declarer played low on the second heart, West could have ducked the lead around to dummy, placing the heart queen with South based on the bidding and East’s initial plays.

As it went, West could have killed the diamonds by winning the second heart and switching, but that would not avail him either, with clubs splitting. Declarer could run a spade switch to hand and then lead a diamond up. Even if West went in with the diamond ace and returned a spade, South could fall back on a 3-3 club split.

A club shift at trick three would put declarer to the test, but West can be squeezed on the run of the clubs. Details are left to the interested reader.

LEAD WITH THE ACES

ANSWER: Lead the club three. Just because partner responded at the one-level does not mean he has good spades. A spade is too dangerous, as is a diamond from the king or a singleton trump.Try a club, which is unlikely to cost a trick even though it may eventually set up a discard for declarer.