ACES ON BRIDGE

It is all well and good to have an extensive knowledge of holdup play.

As is always the case with this game, you also need to know when to apply it.

One of the best-known forms of holdup is the Bath Coup, invented in the days of whist in the English town of Bath. Say declarer holds A-J-x in a suit in which his left-hand opponent has led the king. Ducking may induce a continuation or at least stave off an attack in this suit for a while, thus gaining a tempo. But today’s deal shows that a little learning is a dangerous thing.

When West leads the heart king against three no-trump, South must decide whether to hold up. Today, holding up would be entirely wrong since West might easily find the embarrassing spade switch. Moreover, South can give himself a good shot at nine tricks simply by taking the opening lead. Declarer then crosses to a club and runs the diamond seven. The objective in playing diamonds is to set up the suit while keeping East off lead, an avoidance play. If declarer can manage that, he will be in a good position to take nine tricks.

When the finesse loses to the diamond king, declarer has four diamond tricks, four clubs and the major-suit aces, bringing him to 10 tricks. However, if he had ducked the first trick and West shifted to spades, then either the defense would score three spade tricks, or East would get in early to return a heart through declarer’s gullet.