ACES ON BRIDGE

“No single theory ever agrees with all the facts in its domain.”

— Paul Karl Feyerabend

In the semifinals of the NEC Trophy last February, both tables reached three no-trump after each declarer had shown some extras in the contexts of their opening bid styles. Both Wests led a top spade against three no-trump.

In one room, declarer Inon Liran won dummy’s spade ace and played a heart to the king and ace. Barry Myers, West, won to shift to the diamond 10.

Declarer won in hand and ducked a heart, won the next diamond and played the heart queen to find the bad news. Then he ran the club jack to Myers, who led a diamond to his partner, who could cash her red-suit winners for down three.

In the other room, Karen McCallum did much better; she ducked the opening lead, won the diamond shift in hand and led a club. West won his queen and pressed on with diamonds. (Wouldn’t we all?) McCallum ducked in dummy, letting East overtake to play the heart jack, ducked around to the queen.

Now McCallum overtook the club jack and ran four club winners, then threw West in with a heart to lead spades for the ninth trick. A well-deserved game swing for McCallum’s team.

After declarer ducks the first spade, either a spade continuation or a diamond shift still beats the game. But if declarer ducks the diamond switch, West must then go back to spades to set three no-trump. And if (as at the table) declarer wins the diamond ace and leads clubs, West must win and continue clubs at trick four to disrupt declarer’s entries!

ANSWER: With game-forcing values, you would need to find an exceptional hand to persuade me not to bid my longest suit first. The rationale is not so much that we should always find spades, even if I bid clubs first. It is more that if we have a club game or slam, we make it far harder to locate the suit unless it is introduced at once.