ACES ON BRIDGE

“Necessity never made a good bargain.”

— Benjamin Franklin

South’s five-card suit persuades him to upgrade to a strong no-trump opener, and North offers a choice of games by transferring, then jumping to three no-trump.

When West leads the spade jack, South must plan the play before following to trick one. South’s long club suit must be developed at once. Outside of clubs, South is sure to win two spades, two diamonds and one heart. Declarer therefore needs four club tricks to make sure of his contract.

It seems natural to win the spade lead in dummy and finesse the club queen, but that would be wrong (and costly) today, since, given the plentiful entries to dummy, South has a safety play to augment his chances. Needing only four club tricks, he should win the spade in dummy, retaining entries to the closed hand, then lay down the club ace. When the king falls, South just clears the clubs for his ninth trick. He ducks the spade return, wins the next spade and cashes the long club. If he judges that East cannot hold five spades, he may try the heart finesse for an overtrick.

Had the club ace collected only low cards, declarer would want to lead twice more toward his club honors, still collecting four tricks in the suit when East had king-fourth.

He would enter dummy with the diamond ace and play a club to the queen, then cross to the heart ace, if necessary, to play another club.

Even if West had king-fourth of clubs, declarer might come home — as long as spades broke and the heart finesse worked.