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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff

Opening Lead: ♣K

Defending against four hearts, West led the club king, then thoughtfully shifted to the spade jack, appreciating that he would need to set up winners for his side before declarer could establish the diamond suit for discards.

South played low from dummy and won his spade ace. It looked logical to draw trump next, then play a spade to the king, followed by another spade. East won the trick and exited with the spade nine, ruffed by declarer in dummy.

Declarer could now deduce that West had a singleton diamond and so played a low diamond from dummy. If West won the trick, he would have to concede a ruff-and-discard by leading a club, whereas if East rose with the diamond king he, would be the one endplayed.

Note that East might have exited with the fourth diamond instead of leading the fourth spade. Now to make the contract, declarer must duck this trick, which will leave West endplayed to give the ruff-sluff again. If declarer takes the diamond ace, then East will be able to get in again and cash his two winners.

The contract can be defeated only by an initial spade lead. (However, the play is quite complex if declarer wins the spade king, draws trump, then plays a club. The defenders must win and play a diamond, and when declarer takes the trick and plays a spade, East must go up with the queen to swallow his partner’s 10.).

Bid with the aces

This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.

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