Bridge

In four hearts, after the lead of the diamond ace and king followed by a spade shift, you still have the trump ace to lose, and a huge amount of work to do, even with the most favorable lie of the cards.

The point is that you need the club finesse to stand a chance, unless you can pick off a singleton club king in West. But if the club finesse is working for you, the heart ace must surely be wrong, if West is to have anything remotely approaching an opening bid.

I suggest you win the spade in dummy and lead the heart four to your nine at trick four. When that forces the ace, you can win the next spade in dummy to lead the club queen to take, and if necessary repeat, the club finesse. Now when East turns up with the required holdings in clubs and hearts, you have 10 tricks.

Note what happens if you lead the heart seven from dummy at trick four. East covers, as must you, and West takes the heart queen with his ace and plays back a spade. You win in dummy and now cannot take both the heart finesse and the club finesse and still remain in dummy. The difference is that by leading the heart four to the nine, you retained the two heart intermediates in dummy to leave you with an extra entry if you needed it.

Bid with the aces

South holds:

Answer: Your partner’s sequence suggests six hearts and not enough high cards to bid two hearts directly over two diamonds (perhaps 7-10 points).

That being so, you must pass here despite your reasonable fit for hearts, since you surely have nothing to spare in high cards. Even three hearts will be struggle.