Aces On Bridge

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”

— Socrates

South’s two-club opening is based on the fact that his 22-count should be upgraded, not downgraded into a two-no-trump opener. His combined honors (and great controls plus absence of jacks) make this a clear choice.

North-South should have a Stayman auction after the two notrump rebid to allow South to play three no-trump. Just as you can check for the major-suit fits over the one-no-trump opening, so the three-club bid over the two-notrump opening or rebid allows you to find your fits, one level higher.

On the diamond queen lead, there is no good reason to win the trick — maybe the opponents will shift? When the defenders continue diamonds, South must win and try to find a way to turn eight tricks into nine.

The right technique is to cash the top three clubs at once — if the suit splits, all your problems are over. When West shows length, you must turn your attention to hearts, but you need to be careful with the entry position. Take one top heart from hand, and then go over to dummy’s ace. When West shows out, you have a marked finesse of the heart 10 for your ninth trick. If you play the ace and then king of hearts, you find out about the bad break in hearts, but the absence of entries to the board means you can no longer get to dummy to take the marked finesse.

ANSWER: This double carries no conventional meaning, as far as I am aware. It simply suggests that your partner thinks the contract is going down, so you have no reason to do anything other than lead your systematic small spade, whether you play fourth highest or thirdand-fifth leads. Sometimes a cigar is only a cigar.