The Aces on Bridge: Monday, 2 March 2026

The Aces on Bridge: Monday, 2 March 2026

Barry Rigal
Author

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The fascination of what’s difficult
Has dried the sap out of my
veins.

W.B. Yeats

Play along as South here and cover the East-West cards to make it harder.
Having opened one no-trump, you sensibly decline to break the transfer with your high-card minimum, the point being that you are unlikely to miss game if partner passes, but you might get too high if partner believes you have implied extras. (For the record, I might break the transfer with an additional side queen.)
Partner presses on with three clubs anyway. This is game forcing, so you bid a simple three hearts to confirm a fit and give partner a chance to show slam interest. She has none and raises to game. How should you play the contract of four hearts on the diamond queen lead, ducked around to your king?
You have a spade loser and two diamond losers now. If the trumps come in, this will be easy, so assume they will not. Do you have a chance?
You should strive to get rid of two of your diamonds on dummy’s clubs, and you must be careful with your entries, the heart king being your only quick route to dummy. By all means, cash the heart ace at trick two, but you must unblock the club ace and jack next, before crossing to the heart king. When West shows out, you can safely cash the club king and queen for two diamond discards. You eventually ruff a diamond in hand, losing only a spade, a diamond and a heart.
If you had drawn a second round of trumps before unblocking those clubs, there would have been no way to recover.

Barry Rigal

Barry Rigal is an English-born bridge player, author, commentator, and journalist who has won major national titles in both the UK and the United States and served as a VuGraph commentator for decades at European and World championships. He has written and edited numerous bridge books and articles and has been President of the International Bridge Press Association, contributing widely to the game’s literature and education.

Q
KJ643
1064
KQ43
A10642
7
QJ9
10952
N
W
E
S
J853
Q109
A82
876
K97
A852
K753
AJ
W
N
E
S
1NT
Pass
2
Pass
2
Pass
3
Pass
3
Pass
4
Pass
Pass
Pass

2 Diamonds = Hearts
Opening Lead: Diamond queen

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