ACES ON BRIDGE

The policeman buys shoes slow and careful; the teamster buys gloves slow and careful; they take care of their feet and hands; they live on their feet and hands.

— Carl Sandburg

After North’s routine pre-emptive raise to game, West cashes the heart king, then shifts to the club jack. Once East follows, how do you propose to make 10 tricks?

After taking the club jack with your ace, you draw trump in two rounds and ruff the heart queen in dummy. Then you cash the club queen and king, ending in the dummy. Now that both hearts and clubs have been eliminated, you lead a low diamond from dummy, intending to cover whichever card lower in rank than the king that East might play.

On the given layout, suppose that East follows with the diamond seven. When you cover this with the nine, West has to win the trick with the ace, and your king is set up immediately. Also, it would not help East to play a diamond higher than the seven. If he plays the 10, this will be covered by the king and ace, leaving the jack and nine equals against the defender’s queen. And, of course, the diamond queen from East would be even less effective.

With a different layout, West might win the first diamond with the 10. Then he can do nothing but play another diamond (allowing you to make the diamond king) or give you a ruff-and-discard. Thus you will make 10 tricks no matter how the diamond suit lies.

By contrast, if you had played a diamond to the king in today’s layout, West would take it and return a diamond, giving the defense four tricks.

BID WITH THE ACES

ANSWER: It may look obvious to jump to four spades, but you have a vast number of losers — imagine your partner with queenfourth of spades and a stray jack. Best is to jump to three spades, which (since even a simple raise to two spades shows a good hand) suggests huge trump support and at least an ace more than a decent opening bid.