ACES ON BRIDGE

“Come on, baby, let’s start anew

‘Cause breaking up is hard to do.”

— Neil Sedaka

Against four spades (reached after North’s aggressive jump raise), West preferred a neutral trump lead to an all-out attack in diamonds. Declarer won dummy’s queen in order to finesse in clubs. West took the club king and saw nothing better than continuing spades. Winning cheaply in hand, declarer cashed the club ace. When the 10 appeared, declarer assumed it was a true card and advanced the club jack before drawing the last trump.

After West discarded a diamond, declarer ruffed his long club, then returned to his hand in trump. Declarer seemed to need the diamond finesse now, but South saw another chance. He cashed his remaining black winners, reducing to a four-card ending of only red-suit cards. Both defenders kept their diamond honors guarded, so each in turn reduced to doubleton hearts, East unblocking a top honor.

Declarer now played the heart ace and another heart. When East unblocked again, West could take his heart jack and shift to a diamond, but declarer was not fooled. If West had begun with the diamond ace, he likely would have overcalled one diamond, shifted to a diamond when in with the club king, or bared his diamond ace in the endgame.

So South played low from dummy and landed his game.

East might have done better to bare his diamond ace to retain three hearts. And the ending could have been broken up if West had shifted to a heart; then East could have reduced to the singleton diamond ace legitimately.

ANSWER: Pass. I am all for balancing aggressively, but with so few points and no five-card suit, I would need a singleton club before considering a double. As a passed hand, I’d be much more inclined to act since I know partner won’t go crazy, but we can always win the event on the next deal.