aces on bridge

“Government and cooperation are in all things the laws of life; anarchy and competition the laws of death.” — John Ruskin

When this deal came up, North thought he was too good for a simple rebid of two spades. So he jumped to three spades, and South retaliated by leaping to slam after a couple of cue-bids. He received the apparently friendly lead of the club ace, East playing the club two to indicate an odd number.

At the table, South ruffed, led a trump to dummy and found the bad news. He took a losing diamond finesse, and won the club king, pitching a heart, to play the diamond ace and ruff a diamond. That worked well enough, but when he tried to cash hearts, East ruffed the third, and declarer was doomed.

If South places seven clubs on his left from the play to the first trick, he might decide to protect against the 5-0 spade break, by the somewhat unnatural play of discarding a diamond from his hand at trick one in an attempt to retain control.

The defense does best to shift to a heart, and South wins the queen and crosses to the spade ace. When West discards, declarer leads a spade to the 10, crosses to a heart, and leads a spade to the nine. After drawing trumps, he has 12 tricks.

The two keys to the deal are to count the 12 tricks in the form of one diamond, one club and five tricks in each major — so there is no need to ruff at trick one. The second key play is to lead a trump to the ace (not a high trump from hand) at trick two, to preserve the finesses in trumps against East.

ANSWER: You do not have to drive to three notrump single-handedly; take a slower route by doubling two clubs, a call that is primarily for takeout. Over partner’s response, you can bid three no-trump if necessary. As usual, though, it is better to follow a flexible route and ask partner what he has, rather than telling him.