ACES ON BRIDGE

When is a inesse not a 50 50 chance? When you take a inesse, your odds of success can vary enormously, depending on what you know about the rest of the deal, but you can tilt the odds in your favor sometimes by making the opponents lead the suit in which you need to take the inesse.

Today’s deal shows a hand that appears to depend on the diamond inesse, but you can sway the odds in your favor — and in some cases, avoid the diamond inesse altogether. In other cases, you can turn a 50 percent chance into something much better.

Against six hearts, you capture the spade king with your ace and draw trumps, ruf ing dummy’s spades in hand en route. The best sequence of plays may be to take two rounds of trumps, then the club ace-king, followed by a spade ruff, a third trump to dummy and a second spade ruff.

Now you lead the club nine from hand and concede the trick that has to be lost, hoping the defenders will give you something in return. If East wins the club, you are safe against any return. If West wins, he must lead a diamond, and you cover his card.

The slam will come home if West has either the queen or both the 10 and nine, since you will be able to take two inesses against those cards. Careful play has improved your chances in the slam from one in two to something closer to two in three.

By Bobby Wolff