ACES ON BRIDGE

“But what is Hope? Nothing but the paint on the face of Existence.The least touch of truth rubs it off, and then we see what a hollow-cheeked harlot we have got hold of.”

— Lord Byron

In today’s deal, you open one diamond as South and rebid two no-trump, showing 18 or 19 points. Partner boosts you to game (there is no point in showing the diamond fit), and West tables the fourth-highest club four lead.

You must hope to make a club trick and bring hearts in without loss. The percentage play with this heart combination is to cash the ace and then lead low to the jack, but you are not blessed with enough entries to make that play here. You certainly cannot cross over to dummy twice after cashing one top heart, and you would therefore be unable to take advantage of finding West with the singleton or doubleton heart 10.

However, you can allow for those holdings by finessing the heart jack on the first round and then laying down the ace.

You later reenter dummy with the diamond jack to finesse the heart nine.

For this reason, your club play is not quite a blind guess. Go up with the king, hoping to score an early entry for a heart play. Inserting the club seven would leave you practically relying on the queen-third of hearts onside, even if West had the club queen and East the ace. (Third hand will occasionally be able to play an intermediate at trick one, which would prevent the club king from being an entry to dummy.)

Thus, going up with the club king gives you the best chance here. When it holds, play a heart to the jack. The heart ace follows, dropping the 10, and then it is back over to the diamond jack for a finesse of the heart nine.

ANSWER: Lead the diamond four. A trump lead is unlikely to achieve much when they have a big fit, and a rounded-suit attack would be too dangerous. Leading from the club king is as likely to cost a trick as to set up tricks or cash winners. A safe diamond is the best compromise. Just hope dummy doesn’t have long diamonds.