aces on bridge

“Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.”

— Proverbs 27:1

Today’s deal saw West get off to an unfortunate lead against three no-trump, requiring some nice defense from East to defeat the game.

When North raised South’s twono-trump opening to game, West might have led a heart, but he reasonably opted for the more passive choice of the diamond eight. There is no real likelihood that hearts will be more fertile ground than diamonds, and leading from honor-fourth into a strong hand is more likely to cost a trick than strike gold.

When declarer played low from dummy at trick one, East refrained from contributing the queen. His logic was that he wanted to minimize the later entries to dummy in diamonds by preserving his honor over dummy’s holding.

When South won the first trick with his jack and advanced the club queen, East made his second good play by ducking. Had he won, South would have been able to drive out the club ace, with the diamond entry to dummy remaining in place. As it was, when South played a second club, East won and shifted to spades (again, a diamond would have allowed declarer to create an extra entry to dummy and set up the clubs). When West won his spade jack and reverted to diamonds, declarer put in the 10, but East covered, and declarer now had no chance but to rely on spades breaking.

When that suit split 4-2, he could take no more than three diamonds, one club and two tricks in each major. ANSWER: You are at the top of your range for your earlier actions. This is the right moment to double, suggesting that the opponents may have made a mistake. This will allow your partner to raise spades, introduce a fivecard suit if he has one, or play for penalties.