“I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm.” – F.D. Roosevelt

Take a look at this deal from the Orlando Blue Ribbon Pairs and check out the play in six no-trump, reached after South opened an optimistic strong no-trump. Sadly, some declarers could not believe their good fortune and exchanged their cow for a handful of nonmagic beans.

On a passive spade lead, declarer’s correct play is to knock out the spade ace and cash all the spade and diamond winners before testing the hearts. If one opponent holds length in both hearts and clubs, he will be squeezed. If not, the only hope is that someone holds the jack and 10 of hearts in a three-card suit – and today is declarer’s lucky day.

However, at more than one table, West led a heart against six no-trump. The heart six is a difficult spot card to read, although I think declarer should get it right. But at least one declarer put in the heart nine at trick one and later regretted it.

Even if declarer does plays low on the lead of the heart six, South might be put to the test by a crafty East, who can put in the heart jack and create an illusion of a future winning finesse against the heart 10.

This sort of position, where a defender plays the higher of touching honors to persuade declarer into a losing finesse, comes up more often than is realized. Take advantage of it when you can see that it is declarer and not partner who will be fooled.

Bid with the aces

South holds:

Answer: Jump to three no-trump. With your RHO marked with a near Yarborough, you can see that making nine tricks if playing no-trump your way up will be a lot easier than taking 10 tricks in spades if played by your partner, with a diamond lead coming through the A-Q. Imagine partner having a flat hand with six decent spades to see what I mean.