ACES ON BRIDGE

“Nature never deceives us; it is always we who deceive ourselves.”

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

After an uninformative sequence to three no-trump, West’s normal heart lead lets declarer score his jack cheaply. The maneuver of winning the heart ace at trick one here might induce a heart continuation from West. But that play would fall flat if East were to gain the lead first.

Declarer next crosses to a top club and leads a diamond to the jack, West taking his ace. The critical juncture has now been reached. If West continues hearts or shifts to clubs, he allows declarer the tempo to knock out the diamond king and score an overtrick.

Appreciating the urgency, West shifts to spades, but not just any spade. It must be the spade 10 — though it may not be easy to see why. Any card will do when East has spade king-queen-nine-low, but the 10 protects against declarer’s doubleton ace-nine and forces a guess if South holds three cards to the ace-nine or king-nine. As the cards lie, West picks the suit up in one fell swoop. To switch to a low one would render East unable to continue spades when in with the diamond king, dummy’s spade jack remaining as a guard.

The 10 goes to the jack, queen and ace. Then declarer continues diamonds, but East can win and cash out the spades.

Note that if West had begun with honor-10-low in spades, he would again need to shift to the 10 to set the contract. This play both unblocks spades and pins the nine at the same time.

Also, note that declarer’s play of the spade jack allowed for West’s having shifted from honor-10eight, in which case the suit would be blocked.

ANSWER: Pass. It is fine to be aggressive when doubling for takeout at the one-level. After all, it is an easy and relatively risk-free way into the auction. However, the limited values, doubleton heart and lack of a fourth spade should dissuade you here. As a passed hand, staying silent would be even clearer, of course, but at least your partner would not expect you to have more high cards.