ACES ON BRIDGE

Our final themed deal for this week is based on an idea from a friend. Against four hearts, the defense led the spade king, then shifted to the diamond nine. Put yourself in declarer’s position. Should you cover? In which hand should you win the trick, and what should you do next?

This is a trick question, of course! You should let the diamond nine hold. With the important honors in hearts and clubs all but marked on your left, your best chance of avoiding two club losers is to endplay West, and you must first eliminate diamonds. You should not mind losing a diamond trick, even if the queen is onside, as long as you can keep East off play. East should overtake the diamond nine with his 10 in an effort to obtain the lead. But if he ducks, so do you, and West is left on play.

On a diamond continuation, which is best for the defense, you win in hand, play the heart ace, lead a diamond to the ace and exit with a second trump. West must either lead a spade, allowing you to use the spade queen as a home for your slow club loser, or lead around into your club tenace. Either way, you avoid a club loser altogether.

Here, the purpose of the holdup was to ensure that East, the danger hand who could break up the endplay by shifting to clubs, would not gain the lead in diamonds. While East might have seen through your plan, it is by no means obvious that he could afford to expend the diamond 10 here.