ACES ON BRIDGE

In today’s deal, North’s raise to game was justified only by the vulnerability. West sensibly led a spade, and declarer captured the jack with his ace. The spade seven ran to East’s queen, followed by a shift to the club 10. Declarer won the ace, and West thoughtfully unblocked his queen. Declarer then played the heart 10 to dummy’s king and finessed the diamond 10. After the diamond ace was cashed and both defenders followed small, South had to choose whether to try to set up two tricks in the majors (going down if West had four clubs), or to rely on diamonds splitting 3-3 so that he would only need to establish a heart as an entry to dummy’s diamond jack. Declarer decided to cash the diamond king. When West pitched a heart, South made the natural play of building a second spade trick for himself. West won with his king and led the club jack, but declarer ducked. He could then win the next club, cash a spade (pitching dummy’s diamond jack) and lead a heart to the queen for his ninth trick.

Had declarer played a second heart before the third spade, he could not have been beaten on any defense. But after declarer played a third spade, the defense could have prevailed — though only by the remarkable move of West ducking the third spade! With the lead in dummy, declarer has to come to hand with the club king to play hearts. Now West can unblock his jack under the king and can later access his partner’s minorsuit winners.