aces on bridge

Today’s deal comes from the rubber bridge table and features the enterprising, if slightly optimistic, bidding that one generally encounters in that environment. Perhaps North was wrong to redouble six clubs. If he had passed, South might have contemplated converting to six diamonds, offering a choice between six hearts and six no-trump, both of which would have been successful on the actual lie of the cards. In reality, declarer mistimed the play in six clubs, but West’s four-card trump holding was not necessarily going to be fatal as long as he held a decent ration of red-suit cards. In this type of situation, it is important to envisage the end position, assuming the 4-0 trump break. Declarer needs to force West to split his trump honors, then strip off all the plain cards and force him to lead into the remaining trump tenace. Look at the play on a diamond lead. Declarer wins the ace, crosses to the heart queen and plays a club. West must contribute the 10, and dummy wins the king. Now a top heart, discarding a diamond, and a heart ruff are followed by two top spades. A spade ruff is followed by another heart ruff (safe, given East’s discard a round ago) and another spade ruff. After four spades, four hearts, and one trick in each minor, declarer has A-9-8 of clubs, and West has Q-J-2. Declarer leads out the trump eight, and West can win with the jack but is endplayed at trick 12.