Bridge

Many-time world champion Mike Lawrence writes clearly and succinctly, and his book, “How to Play Card Combinations,” (Devyn Press) is a must for all aspiring experts.

Take today’s deal. When West leads the spade 10 against three no-trump, the North-South spade holding is under the microscope. Since East has at least five good spades for his overcall, it must be right for declarer to cover the 10 with dummy’s queen, ensuring two tricks in that suit. Declarer’s plan is to knock out both the red aces. (It should also be clear that East does not have both aces, by virtue of his failure to open the bidding.)

At first glance, it seems that South must guess which ace East holds, and in order to isolate the spades, attack that suit first. But in fact, when East covers dummy’s queen with the king, the safe way home is to duck this trick. If East continues spades, declarer ducks the lead around to dummy. Now declarer can attack either red suit, as spades are not established, and even if West gains the lead with his ace, he will have no spade left to play to his partner.

Note, though, that East has a counter. By withholding the spade king, he leaves declarer on a straight guess as to which red suit to play on for his contract. South fails if he attacks hearts before diamonds, as West has a second spade to play through to his partner, and East will get in with the diamond ace to run his spades.

Bid with the aces

South holds:

Answer: Bid two hearts, giving preference. You could make one of several serious errors here: Rebidding two no-trump is a huge overbid, while rebidding two spades guarantees a far better suit than this. Equally bad, bidding two diamonds is fourth suit forcing, promising game-going values. Better to go back to hearts now, showing these values, even if your trumps may prove a little disappointing.