ACES ON BRIDGE

Today’s deal saw me as East, wondering if I would have been weighed in the balance and found wanting had declarer put me to the test. My partner led the club king against four hearts. I followed with the two, feeling that my count might be more important than attitude here. After due deliberation, West switched to the diamond five. Plan the play now, in declarer’s shoes. Declarer was frightened of a ruff, so he rose with the diamond ace, then cashed the top trumps and continued the attack on diamonds. I won the king and shifted to the spade four, a count card. Declarer knocked out the trump queen, and West cashed his spade winner, so declarer lost a trick in each suit for down one. Notice that if I win the diamond king and give West his diamond ruff, South is a tempo ahead in the race to 10 tricks. That also applies if I continue with clubs on winning the diamond king. So it is surely best to finesse at trick two, hoping East does not find the spade switch. My instincts are that the spade shift at trick three is sufficiently logical that I would have made the play. It might cost overtricks, but it is very unlikely to let through the contract, and surely West should have cashed a second club if one were standing up. Given that South appears to have three diamonds, he would not finesse unless the layout of the cards looked very much as it does here.