ACES ON BRIDGE
Opening Lead: Spade two
Take the South cards for this deal from the Mixed Teams qualifier at the 2022 World Bridge Series in Wroclaw, Poland.
The popular contract was four spades, frequently declared by South on a diamond lead. As the cards lie, you should not let yourself be influenced by the presence of the heart queen-10 in dummy and try to guess that suit for a second trick. Many declarers were seduced by the presence of those minor honors in hearts and played on the suit. This led to ignominious failure.
What about instead trying for four outside top tricks and six trumps? Even if West leads a trump to the queen, king and ace, this plan might work.
After winning the spade ace, play the club ace and ruff a club. Cash the spade jack to get the unwelcome news, but even so, you are still very much in the game. Take the top diamonds and ruff another club, then ruff a diamond to hand and l ead the fourth club. Had trumps broken, then even if the club were to get overruffed by East, your long club would represent the 10th trick.
As the cards lie, West has to follow suit in clubs, so you can ruff in dummy and are home by a different route. However, even if West could ruff in, he would have to draw the last trump to keep you from winning North’s small trump. After that, unless he has both outstanding diamonds, in say an original 4=1=5=3 shape, your fifth club will again be good.
For the record, four spades went down twice as often as it made.
ANSWER: It is time to get out now while you are at a low level. You would usually give preference to two hearts with this pattern, but passing is prudent here. With the same hand but some prospects of game facing extra values, you might give false preference. If your heart six were the king, that would be enough to keep the auction open since game might be possible facing a hand with extra values.