PARTNER POINTS THE WAY HOME

Martha Quinn, one of the first video jockeys on MTV, said, “Demand no more out of your partner than what you are willing to give yourself.” That is a reasonable thought for a bridge player.

Partners do well to concentrate on defense. That is much more important than bidding.

This is the type of deal that is a stroll in the park for experts but guesswork for the inexperienced. How should East-West card to defeat four spades?

West, who could anticipate his partner’s singleton spade, was tempted to sacrifice in five hearts. How would that contract have done?

There is an important defensive leading rule. Usually, we lead the ace from ace-king. But there are three times when you should lead the king from aceking: first, and rarest, when you have ace-king-doubleton; second, at trick one in a bid-andraised suit by your partnership; third, after trick one, which we looked at in yesterday’s column.

Here, West leads the heart king, and East signals enthusiastically with the nine because he holds the queen. Now West should see how to defeat the contract, shifting to his singleton diamond. Declarer wins on the board, plays a club to his ace and leads a sneaky spade jack, feigning a finesse for the queen. But West dashes in with his ace, leads the heart seven to his partner’s queen and receives a diamond ruff to defeat the contract.

Finally, five hearts goes down two if the defense goes: club to the ace, diamond to the 10, club king and club ruff. But that’s from the twilight zone.