ACES ON BRIDGE

“Laces for a lady; letters for a spy,

Watch the wall my darling while the Gentlemen go by!”

— Rudyard Kipling

They say that the looker-on sees most of the game. As a kibitzer at my club, I often wonder whether the players consider the consequences of their actions. All too often, the board is completed and the players move on, blithely unaware of the opportunities missed and chances gone begging.

Today’s deal saw me as North, dummy, with the sort of hand that Terence Reese would have described as a king better than his usual rubber bridge collection. I transferred my partner into two spades, and West hit on the lead of the diamond seven, rather than the club eight. (The latter would have been my choice, if only because it might have been a little easier to read.)

East won the diamond king and ace and pressed on with the diamond 10 — the best defense, though she announced afterward that she thought she was defending notrump.

South ruffed with the spade queen, and West overruffed and cashed the heart ace, then led a club. Declarer carefully won that in dummy to lead a spade toward the 10, and could no longer be prevented from making eight tricks.

As usual, no one said anything germane to best play and defense in the postmortem. My partner had played it nicely, but how would you comment on the defense?

West missed a trick when he overruffed the spade queen; if he had pitched a club, he could ensure that he either would get a club ruff or could ruff the fourth diamond with the spade nine once declarer was out of trumps.

ANSWER: Here your partner has doubled for takeout. You can simply bid either minor, but I’d suggest a call of two no-trump to show both minors. Since you did not bid two no-trump over two hearts, this should not be read as natural. The question is whether you should try for game by raising the minor selected by partner. You have just enough to do that if you believe partner has promised extras.