ACES ON BRIDGE

“Little things affect little minds.” -- Benjamin Disraeli

After inspecting dummy in today’s deal, South remarked that his chances might depend on who held the club two. His opponents snickered, but as the play developed, it became clear that South had a valid point.

Against three no-trump, West sensibly opted for the heart jack as opening lead. East was allowed to win his top hearts, and then switched to a spade. Declarer won on the table and saw he needed to develop the clubs for a second trick.

He began by leading the club jack from the board, which East won with his ace to continue spades. He expected South to play his club king, after which East would be left with the queen-nine over dummy’s jack-four and two more defensive tricks.

East was in for a disappointment, though, as declarer won the spade continuation on the table and continued with the club 10. This went to the queen, king and eight. All that remained for South to do was to force out East’s nine and establish a second club trick. In fact, South, ever the showman, led the club six to dummy’s four. On winning East’s return, he cashed everything else before scoring the club three at trick 13, dropping East’s two.

South’s play works whenever East has started with four clubs including the ace, queen and two. And the action and play to the first few tricks had marked East with both high clubs. On a different day, you might prefer initially to lead a low club toward the jack-10.

ANSWER: This is something of a crapshoot. It would be right to balance if partner has values, whether he is long in diamonds or not. It is wrong to balance if you let the opponents find a better fit or turn a plus score into a minus. My diamond honors persuade me to pass, but with the heart queen in addition, I’d consider overcalling one no-trump, showing 11-15 HCP. I’d feel stronger if one or both sides were non-vulnerable.