ACES ON BRIDGE

North’s (questionable) decision to bypass his spades worked well when West had a blind choice between the black suits on opening lead against four hearts after a distinctly optimistic jump to game by South. A club lead would have beaten the contract at once, but West opted for an unbid suit — and who could blame him? Declarer could see three certain losers and potential for more in each red suit. He could not afford to start drawing trumps, lest East get in and shift to a diamond. In fact, unless the hearts were favorably placed, declarer would need to dump both of his diamonds. He therefore took the spade king and played three more rounds of the suit. East could see he had to trump the fourth round, but when he ruffed the fourth spade high, South simply pitched his second diamond. When declarer regained the lead, he continued his accurate play by guessing to run the heart jack, holding his further trump losers to one and bringing his game home. Note that it would have been precipitous for declarer to cash the heart ace before playing on spades. That would have allowed the defenders to unscramble their trump tricks far more easily. But the defense still had a chance, even as the play went. East needed to steel himself and ruff the fourth spade low (a psychologically hard play to find). Then declarer would have been unable to succeed no matter how well he guessed the position.