This Week in Bridge
(563) Card Play – Making Use of an Ace
© AiB Robert S. Todd
Level: 5 of 10 robert@advinbridge.com
General
The Ace is the most powerful card in each suit. It almost always wins a trick (especially in a notrump contract), but the Ace does much more than simply win one trick. The Ace controls the suit. When we hold the Ace of a suit, we get to not only win a trick in that suit, we get to decide when we take our trick and gain the lead. Holding the Ace gives us the power to choose how the play is going to go. The Ace can also be used to develop additional tricks -- capture the opponents’ honors and promote our honors or develop our little cards into winners by helping us establish our long suits. Here we look at some of the ways we can get the most out of our Aces!
Hold Up Play – Notrump and Suit Play
When we are declaring in a NT contract, if we hold the Ace of a suit then we have a choice of when to take it. When the opponents lead a suit in a NT contract, they are often trying to establish their long suit and take tricks with their little cards. But to do this, they have to run us out of the suit and regain the lead to cash their now established winners.
One of the best ways of preventing this from happening is to cut communication between the opponents. That way, if the defender who is out of the suit gains the lead, they cannot return the suit and allow their partner to take their tricks. The classic way of using our Ace to cut communication between the opponents is to make a hold up play.
Example 1
♠ 73
♠ A54
The opponents have 8 cards in the ♠ suit. If the suit splits 4-4, we cannot cut communication, but if the suits divides 5-3 (or even 6-2 or 7-1), and we hold on to our ♠A and win it on the third round of the suit, we cut communication between the opponents. Assuming that the LHO has the 5-card suit, then we call them the danger hand and RHO the safe hand.
We may also find it useful to make a hold up play in a suit contract. Let’s say the opponents open or overcall 1♥ and never rebid or raise the suit. Then we strongly believe that the ♥ suit is splitting 5-2. If we win the contract and the opponents lead this suit, it is usually right to duck the first round of the suit and win the second round, cutting communication between the defenders.
Example 2
♥ 873
♥ A54
If LHO overcalls 1♥, does not rebid their suit, and leads the ♥K, then we should probably duck this opening lead to cut communication between the opponents. If RHO gets in later, they will not be able to return a ♥ and to collect their second ♥ trick.
Capture an Honor – Promotion
Another way that we can use an Ace is to take one of the opponent’s honors and promote our honor cards.
Example 3
♦ 43
♦ AJT
If the opponents lead low in this suit at trick 1 and RHO plays an honor, we should capture the opponent’s honor to develop a second stopper for our suit. Once we have captured either the King or Queen, our ♦JT is certain to be a second stopper for our side.
Example 4
♣ J43
♣ A52
If LHO leads the ♣K, we should capture it at trick 1, even in a NT contract. If we do, then our ♣Jx behind the ♣Q will become a second stopper when the opponents regain the lead and play the suit.
Capture an Honor -- Develop Positional Stopper
When we have a holding like AJx in a suit then we have a choice of how to use our Ace. We could hold up on our Ace, using the suit the same way that we would if we had something like Axx.
We also could use our Ace to capture an honor and create another potential stopper in this suit with Jx. If a low card is led and RHO plays one of the honors, then we can capture it and expect the other honor to be on our left. If we know that our LHO is going to gain the lead later (we are taking a finesse into them or we know from the bidding that they have the missing honor), then we create a stopper for our side – called a positional stopper because it is only a stopper if the safe hand is on lead – LHO!
Example 5
♦xx
♦KTxxx ♦Qxx
♦AJx
This is one of the classic positions where we must decide how to use our AJx holding – hold up play or positional stopper. The rest of the hand and the bidding will help us make the decision about what is our best option.
Bath Coup
Of course, if LHO leads the King (or Queen) and we have the AJx, we can make a hold up play and create an impossible problem the opponents. If LHO continues the suit, either with a little card or the Queen, we have two tricks. This play is effective in both NT and suit contracts.
Example 6
Lead
♠K
Declarer
♠AJx
If we duck the first trick and LHO continues the suit, we will have two stoppers. This is called a Bath Coup. It requires LHO to get their partner on lead to play through our holding, lets us hold up our Ace, and then still needs LHO to regain the lead to finally take their tricks.
Conclusion
The Ace in a suit is an extremely powerful card, but we should learn to use our Aces to do more than just take a trick. When we hold the Ace, we have control of the suit and can use it to our advantage, often forcing the opponents to defend in awkward ways. Make sure that you learn a variety of techniques for using your Aces and make sure that you apply the right one on each hand. This will dramatically improve your ability to prevent the opponents from taking tricks!