ACES ON BRIDGE

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”

— Socrates

When you open two clubs and rebid two no-trump, you show a balanced 22-24 HCP. This is not forcing, but North has enough to raise to three no-trump today.

When the defenders lead the diamond king, you duck and see East follow with the diamond three — the defenders play that the king asks for count, so you should assume East has one or three diamonds. How will you plan the play?

One possibility is to take every finesse in sight, but you can do better than that if you can endplay West to lead suits to your advantage. It is tempting to try to do that by throwing him in with diamonds, but you do not know for sure who has the diamond 10.

A better alternative might be to duck the first two diamonds and win the third, cash the club ace, then the three top hearts, and lead to the club jack. If West follows with the queen on the second round, you might consider ducking this. In practice, though, West will likely follow low, so you finesse, cash the king of clubs, and exit with the fourth club to West. That player can cash his long diamond, the defenders’ fourth trick, but in the two-card ending, he will have to lead away from his spade king to give you your ninth trick.

Two points to note: Maybe if West did have the doubleton club queen, he should unblock the queen under the ace — easier said than done! As the cards lie, West might find the false-card in clubs on the second round.

ANSWER: There is no need to bid two clubs, the highest-ranking suit, since if partner wants to bid a major at the one-level, this might easily be the least-expensive resting place. There will be plenty of time to reconsider this decision, but the opponents may take you off the hook.