ACES ON BRIDGE

Today’s hand is all about combining chances. South super-accepts North’s transfer by jumping to three spades. North cue-bids the heart ace, and South, with a maximum and plenty of side controls, drives to a slam.

Declarer wins the heart lead in dummy, lamenting the duplication in that suit, and draws trumps in one round. South must assume the diamond king is onside, but relying on a winning club guess for the 12th trick would be a mistake. Declarer can first try his luck in the diamond suit. He finesses the diamond queen, cashes the ace, throws a diamond on the heart king and then ruffs a diamond. When that suit splits evenly, declarer can re-enter his hand with a trump to pitch a club on the long diamond, making six. If diamonds had split badly, declarer could still take his best guess in the club suit.

Determining the correct line in five spades, by contrast, turns out to be remarkably complex. After drawing trumps, you could start with a diamond finesse. If it loses, the defenders can cause no more problems unless they return a diamond. Run this to your ace, pitch a diamond on the heart king if the diamond jack does not fall, and then ruff a diamond, falling back on a club finesse.

Alternatively, you could pitch a club on the heart king, eliminate hearts, try to guess clubs, and then fall back on leading a diamond toward the 10. Readers may enjoy finding other plausible approaches, but I do not believe there is a 100% line.

LEAD WITH THE ACES

ANSWER: Lead the club seven. Aggression is often called for on this sequence, with dummy being somewhat unlimited. A spade would be a shot in the dark but certainly not absurd. A diamond seems more likely to lose a trick than beat the contract at once. If you lead a club, I prefer second-highest from four small if the top two cards are not touching, but top from 9-8-6-5, for example.

“One of the low on whom assurance sits / As a silk hat on a Bradford millionaire.” — T.S. Eliot