38 Should I hold up my ace? (part 1)

Depends on the situation. Here’s an easy one:

1. In a suit contract, you are LHO (Left-hand opponent) so dummy is on your left, where you spy a king with one or more low cards. You have the ace and others.  Now declarer leads a low card towards the king, hoping to make it. He is entitled to that king because it was sitting under your ace from the moment the deal was made, so it’s a “live” king and belongs to Caesar. Put your ace up immediately (called rising with the ace). Why? Because that leading low card could be a singleton and if you hold up then where would your ace be? Ever been left holding a useless ace at the end of a hand?

N.B,  Do not rise if the dummy card is the queen. Play low and if your partner has the king, she will die. If declarer has the king he is entitled to one trick, let him have it now: when he tries the king later you now have the means to stop him making two tricks.

2. In any contract, again you are the LHO, but the dummy king is part of a wonderful sequence like KQJ10 and perhaps even more long cards. When declarer leads a little card you know that once your ace is out of the way he will dump all his losers on that side suit. Should you rise? Well, if there are any obvious entries to that dummy other than the long suit, put up your ace because withholding it won’t stop declarer getting back to the suit later. If you have any uncashed winners in some other suit, it could pay you to rise in case these are the losers declarer intends to dump. Take your ace and lead your suit. But if you can see no dummy entries beside the sequence, hold up till you “know” the declarer is leading his last card of that suit. Now rise and he will never get there. If in doubt, rise, now find a safe suit to exit with.