The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff

South had too much for a direct 1♠ overcall, so started with a double. West raised pre-emptively to 3♦ on his five-card support, consuming bidding space, and when South came again with 3♠, North sportingly gave him one for the road, mainly based on his spade filler.

Opening Lead: ♦A

West kicked off with the ace and another diamond. Declarer wanted to reach dummy for a trump finesse, but if he tried to force his way there in clubs, leading out the club king, East would surely duck after seeing his partner’s count signal. East would win the next club and exit on a heart, but even if declarer followed with three rounds of that suit, putting the defense back on lead, a club exit would compel declarer to ruff then lead trumps out of hand.

Foreseeing this problem, declarer played out ace, king and another heart before anything else. East was marked with the club ace for his opening bid, in which case if the defenders broached clubs first, they would have to give declarer an entry to dummy regardless of who won the third heart. A club shift from West would go to the queen, ace and king.

However, East knew the game. He could see the key to the hand was to score his ♠K. He placed declarer with this exact shape and returned a diamond after winning the third heart, giving a useless ruff-and-discard. Declarer was stuck. If he ruffed in dummy, he would only be able to take one trump finesse through East; not enough to pick up the king. Ruffing in hand would fare no better, with East poised to hold up on the lead of the club king.

Bid with the Aces

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