ACES ON BRIDGE

“The highest intellects, like the tops of mountains, are the first to catch and reflect the dawn.” -- Lord Macaulay

This is a hand where it is necessary to plan ahead, to envision what might go wrong and how to circumnavigate the problems.

When West led the club queen against four hearts, South was optimistic that the lead had solved one of his problems. But since there was a chance that the opening lead was a singleton, declarer won in hand and played a trump immediately, finding he had a loser there. Next he played a diamond, and East captured the king with the ace and switched to a spade, which went to the king and ace. West cashed the master trump, then got off play safely with a diamond. Now there was no way for South to avoid a second spade loser, and that proved to be the setting trick.

If South had taken the club queen lead on trust and assumed he had no loser in that suit, he could have succeeded by playing on diamonds at trick two, before touching trumps. East will naturally capture dummy’s king with the ace and probably return a spade. (Note that if East can give West a club ruff, the defense will be trumping a loser.)

Assume West wins the spade ace and exits in diamonds. South ruffs and plays his top hearts, discovering he has a loser there. But he can next eliminate clubs, and West will be endplayed in trump, sooner or later. Now West is forced to lead into South’s spade tenace, or give a ruff and discard.

This same sequence of plays is available after a club play at trick four.

ANSWER: Your partner’s double is between optional and takeout; you are expected to remove the double with any hand where you might hope to make your contract. Since your values, such as they are, are in the right place, you should act. Rather than guess at the best suit to play in, bid four no-trump, showing a two-suiter and asking partner to pick his better minor. You will correct five diamonds to five hearts.