ACES ON BRIDGE

“In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood, where the straight way was lost.”

— Dante Alighieri

When South bid three spades over East’s pre-empt, North raised to game rather than trying no-trump.

On the heart nine opening lead, South wanted to keep East off play. So he rose with the ace and drew trumps. South next played a diamond to the king, which held, followed by the diamond queen, unblocking dummy’s eight. West took the ace and got out with a heart, ruffed by declarer, who now knew West’s full shape.

South played his final trump to tighten the position, then a club to the king and ace. (Ducking would not have helped.) The club jack return went to dummy’s queen, squeezing West. That player was next thrown in with a heart to lead into the diamond tenace.

A well-played hand, but West also should have ducked the second diamond. Declarer would have lost control of diamonds and would have had no pressure in the ending; West could simply discard his low diamond on the clubs.

Moreover, South had given him the opportunity to be brilliant. Declarer’s best line was to draw just two rounds of trumps with the ace and jack, then turn to diamonds right away. It would have done West no good to win the second and lead a diamond for his partner to ruff. Declarer would then be able to ruff a club in dummy after pitching one on a diamond winner. Thus, West would have done best to hold up the diamond ace twice. But now, with a trump left in dummy, declarer could simply persist with another diamond and eventually arrange to take a diamond ruff on the table.

ANSWER: Bid three spades. Follow the Law of Total Tricks and raise to the level of the fit (in this case, with a combined holding of nine trumps, commit to three spades). Even with such poor shape, this pre-emptive maneuver may keep East-west out of the bidding and away from their potential game.