ACES ON BRIDGE

Today’s deal is part of a weekly series in which we look at variations in the play and tackle suit combinations that exhibit a broadly similar theme.

This week, all the critical suits are missing the queen and jack. Here, a simple Stayman sequence saw South reach three no-trump after showing hearts, while dummy had implied spade length. West was happy enough with his heart sequence to lead it, and declarer won the first trick for fear of a club shift, then saw that he could probably make his contract if he could establish either an extra trick from spades or diamonds. It seemed like the diamonds could wait; so declarer immediately went after spades, running the eight from hand around to East, who continued with hearts. Declarer ducked, won the next heart, then played the ace, king and a third diamond to East. That player could cash his last diamond winner and exit in clubs, but South took his last chance when he led a spade to the 10 and cashed out that suit for nine tricks.

Notice that declarer led the spade eight rather than the nine from hand because he did not want West to cover — as a general rule, leading the lower of touching cards toward dummy is more likely to get a defender to duck.

Also, it is worth noting that West did have a chance to set the game. If he had covered the first spade, declarer would have been held to two tricks in that suit as long as the defenders played accurately thereafter.