ACES ON BRIDGE

This week’s deals all come from the Gold Coast tournament in Brisbane. This is one of the most enjoyable events on the calendar, with sun, sea and sand all augmenting a venue packed with cheap accommodations.

Michael Rosenberg and Ross Harper, two expatriate Scots, threatened to break into the top three in the main pairs event, eventually finishing second. Here they benefited from some careless declarer play. Harper led a diamond against three no-trump by South, reached after that player had upgraded his hand into a 15-17 no-trump.

Rosenberg took the king and shifted to the spade queen. We should all be familiar with the idea of ducking the first round of the suit when we hold the ace facing king, but is this the time to put that notion into effect?

That play might be necessary at trick two to try to neutralize the defender’s spades if the suit breaks 5-2. But since West appears to have the diamond ace, it may be safe enough to win the lead and play on clubs at once. At the table, though, declarer won in hand and guessed very badly when he led a diamond. Harper was having none of that; he took his ace and played back a spade, and now Rosenberg had the entry to run spades when he got in. That was two down, and all the matchpoints.

Note that if you do duck trick two, then on a heart shift you may find yourself with a tough guess in the ending.