ACES ON BRIDGE

“Careless she is with artful care,

Affecting to seem unaffected.” — William Congreve

After North's game-forcing threediamond rebid, South showed preference for hearts. When North showed his spade support, South sensibly decided to raise spades, to play the known 5-3 fit, rather than rebid three no-trump.

West led the unbid suit to dummy's king, and declarer called for the spade king at trick two. When that held, he crossed to the diamond queen to ruff a club. He then led the spade queen off the table. East won with his ace and exited with the club queen. His goal was to help his partner force declarer eventually. As it was, though, after coming back in with the spade 10, East could do little more than exit with a diamond. That killed the discard on dummy's fourth diamond, but declarer could not get the hearts wrong. After the fourth diamond was ruffed and overruffed, South still had a trump, and the game came home.

East had needed to exit with a diamond after winning the spade ace. Declarer would win in dummy and play two more rounds of diamonds, but East could counter by discarding his last club. West would eventually get in with the heart ace, and the club ruff would represent the setting trick.

Even so, declarer could have made the hand by playing on hearts earlier. He also could have cashed the top diamond cards before exiting with the spade queen. Of course, declarer could not be sure diamonds were splitting evenly, and it was always possible that West might have dropped the spade jack from jackdoubleton.

ANSWER: Your partner could easily have short clubs, so a threeclub call would carry a severe risk of leading to a very silly contract. Your best shot is to pass, having found a fit of sorts. You are unlikely to make game, and even against a trump lead, your hand should offer your partner some useful prospects.