ACES ON BRIDGE

“’Will you walk into my parlor?’ said the Spider to the Fly;

‘’Tis the prettiest little parlor that ever you did spy.’”

— Mary Howitt

The field reached three no-trump or four hearts on this deal from the first qualifying session of last fall’s Kaplan Blue Ribbon Pairs, and both contracts offered interesting play on a spade lead.

In three no-trump, after the lead of the spade six to the seven, jack and king, one declarer tried a diamond to the queen after cashing the heart ace. East won and shifted to the club jack, and that meant 10 tricks for declarer.

Let’s say you play four hearts after the same start. When you put in the spade seven, East can lead you astray by playing the spade queen. Now declarer will surely draw trumps, then finesse against the spade jack and go down without a struggle.

But if South avoids that trap, he will strip away the spades and trumps, then lead a diamond toward one honor or the other. Whether he leads a diamond toward the king or queen, West will have to unblock his jack early on to let East win the third diamond and shift to clubs.

Whichever club is chosen, South must decide whether East started with J-10-2, J-8-2 or 10-8-2. So if East shifts to the two, declarer should put in the seven, unsuccessfully, because that caters to two of the three positions.

If East shifts to the club jack or 10, should South play him for both honors? Probably yes, because shifting to an unsupported honor might give declarer a winning option when none would have existed on a shift to a low card.

ANSWER: Normally the range of a one-no-trump response is 7-10, but this hand probably falls outside that range for more than one reason. The intermediates are spectacular, the spade cards are worth more than 3 points, and there is a builder in hearts for partner’s long suit. I would stretch to a response of two no-trump.