ACES ON BRIDGE

After North eschewed Stayman with his 4-3-3-3 shape, both Wests in a teams game guessed to lead the club two against three no-trump, rather than a heart.

In one room, declarer won and tamely took the heart finesse, resulting in instant defeat. In the other, South won the first trick and saw that if he finessed hearts into the danger hand, East might win and return a killing club. However, if the spade ace was onside, it would be enough to play twice toward the king-queen. Declarer began by taking three rounds of diamonds, ending in dummy, then led a spade to the king and West’s ace. Declarer put up the ace on West’s heart shift and took a second spade finesse, this time running the spade nine into the safe hand. West won with the 10 and pressed on in hearts, but declarer chose the winning option, taking the king and finessing the spade eight for his contract. Even if West had held the ace-jack-10 of spades, he might now have been thrown in to yield a second club trick. Incidentally, cashing three diamonds early would have been revealing if West had shown out early. West would then have been known to hold spade length, since he had only four clubs. (He surely would have led a five-card heart suit.) Declarer would either finesse in hearts or take the king and play a spade to the queen.

As a final thought, if West had ducked the first spade in tempo, declarer probably would have led a spade to the queen next, losing the contract.