ACES ON BRIDGE

This week, our deals focus on hold-up plays in defense. We begin with the most common function: to kill a long suit in dummy.

West leads the spade jack against three no-trump, East encouraging as declarer wins. The diamond three is led to the four and king, and East ducks to try to neutralize the dummy. When the diamond queen is led next, East knows to win rather than duck again. West’s diamond four was the lowest outstanding spot, and he would have started an echo from two small. It follows that West was dealt either three diamonds or a singleton, in which case there would be no winning play.

East grabs the diamond ace and fires back the spade queen. Now the best declarer can do is work on clubs for two down.

Note that ducking the second diamond would not be safe. Declarer would switch to clubs, leading low to the queen. This succeeds against jack-doubleton offside, whereas finessing the nine would not pick off a doubleton king with West. On today’s layout, South would come to nine tricks via two spades, two hearts, two diamonds and three clubs.

Declarer should have led the diamond nine at trick two, hiding his smaller spotcard. Then East would have a tougher time reading his partner’s four. For all he knew, that could be from four-three doubleton. The general principle is that declarer should signal with his spot-cards using the opponents’ methods. For example, if the opponents play upside-down signals, lead the three to the jack. This leaves open the possibility to East that West started with a 9-8 doubleton.

ANSWER: Lead the club jack. East has denied four spades and three hearts. Presumably, he would have mentioned a six-card club suit. It follows that he must hold at least three diamonds, in which case there is little chance of setting up and cashing the suit, for want of entries. Go active with the club jack instead. Partner could have overcalled one spade conveniently, but not two clubs.

“The secret of all victory lies in the organization of the non-obvious.” — Oswald Spengler