“Death cancels everything but truth, and strips a man of everything but genius and virtue. It is a sort of natural canonization.” – William Hazlitt

When one defender has declared length in one suit, stripping his hand of all cards in the other suits before putting him on lead can be the key to success. Today’s deal demonstrates that theme nicely.

Perfect defense would have defeated West’s gambling three no-trump by five tricks if East had passed it out, but many Norths moved, and South ended as declarer in four spades.

After West cashed two top clubs, then switched to the diamond jack, one declarer played the spade ace, then ran the jack to West’s queen. On its own, this was not an unreasonable shot in view of the bidding. West now returned a diamond, and South could do nothing about his heart loser – down one.

Olivier Bessis of France showed a better way to play. Again, two top clubs were cashed, and this defender switched to a heart to the nine, jack and king. Bessis played a heart back toward dummy’s ace, and even had West started with a singleton and now ruffed, he would have been ruffing only a loser. Next came the diamond ace, a diamond to the king and a diamond ruff.

Only now did Bessis tackle trumps by playing the ace, and then he too ran the jack. Although West won, he now had only clubs to return, and Bessis was able to discard his losing heart in hand while ruffing in dummy.

Bid with the aces

South holds:

Answer: You have enough in hand to make a game-try of two no-trump. This suggests your 5-4 hand-pattern and enough extras to let partner consider game if he is not minimum. His one-no-trump response suggested 8-12, so if you are facing a maximum, game should be within reach.