Aces on bridge

“Democracy destroys itself because it abuses its right to freedom and equality. Because it teaches its citizens to consider audacity as a right, lawlessness as a freedom, abrasive speech as equality, and anarchy as progress.”

— Paraphrased from Isocrates

The 2017 Yeh Bros Cup threw up this intriguing four-heart game. At one table, Karen McCallum chose a good moment for an aggressive pre-empt when she opened three spades. North, Deng Zhuodi, also did well when he elected to double on a slightly flawed hand. This had the effect of getting his side to four hearts. After a spade lead, won in hand, declarer Yin Jiashen could see little prospect but to eliminate diamonds.

When Cenk Tuncok, as East, won his diamond ace and returned the suit, the fall of the jack let Jiashen win, then guess the trump queen and draw trumps in two rounds. Next, declarer pitched a spade on the diamond 10 and finessed clubs, with East becoming endplayed upon winning that trick. He could either lead a club into the tenace or give a ruff-sluff, letting declarer ruff in hand and pitch another spade from dummy.

In the other room, Jing Liu led a top spade. Declarer Sally Brock won and played a diamond, and Yingbao Liu found a more challenging defense when he ducked this trick but won the next, returning a diamond to let West ruff in and kill the discard.

However, this simplified the trump position; declarer overruffed West, drew trumps in two rounds and passed the club 10 for the same endplay. When a diamond came back, Brock could pitch a spade from hand and ruff in dummy, and her hand was now high, apart from her spade loser.

No swing, and nicely done.

ANSWER: It never does any harm to cover the basics from time to time. When the opponents bid and raise a suit after your side has doubled, your side’s next double is takeout rather than for penalty. That applies whether you or your partner makes the second double. So you should bid three hearts now.