“It is true we may come to a perpendicular precipice, but we need not jump off, nor run our heads against it. - Henry David Thoreau

Six spades by South is an excellent contract, one that would make easily on a red-suit lead. However, after West found the club lead, South drew trumps in three rounds before taking the diamond finesse. East, an experienced performer, won the diamond king and advanced an innocent looking heart eight, trying to dissuade declarer from taking the finesse. After much thought, South took his ace, and the contract could no longer be made.

In the post-mortem North accused his partner of playing for an inferior chance (the diamond split), whereas South justified his play by saying that he would have succeeded not only with a 3-3 diamond split, but via a squeeze when the same hand had the heart king and diamond length, a much better than 50 percent chance. However, they were both wrong about the right way to play the hand.

The correct line is to draw trumps, eliminate the clubs, lead a diamond to the ace, then play a second diamond toward the jack, intending to follow up with a third round of diamonds if the jack holds. This line succeeds whenever the diamond king is doubleton, since if West wins, he will be endplayed, and if East wins, declarer has his discard. Additionally, it will always allow declarer to find out whether diamonds are splitting before he commits himself in hearts, so he will know if he needs the heart finesse.

Bid with the Aces

South holds:

Answer: After bidding your two suits, you showed a balanced 12-14 points, whereupon your partner invited you to slam – four no-trump is quantitative here. You have a maximum, so jump to six no-trump.