ACES ON BRIDGE

Declarer had two threats to protect against today. One was real, the other phantasmagorical.

North’s two-spade response showed an invitational three-card heart raise. East might have come in with three diamonds, but he was deterred by the vulnerability and had decent defensive prospects.

When South leapt to game, West naturally led the spade jack, rather than attacking from a broken suit. East thoughtfully played low at trick one, reasoning that West would not lead from a king-jack-10 combination on a blind auction. Thus, South had both outstanding face cards, and playing low might leave him with entry problems.

Now declarer needed to avoid a potential spade ruff, so he cashed the heart ace-king to hold his trump losers to one against a three-two split. When East showed out, declarer could no longer protect against the spade ruff. If he drove out the heart queen next, a diamond switch could start a force if the ace was wrong, and declarer would never score a second spade trick.

So declarer made the far-sighted play of a spade from dummy. East took his ace but could do no better than continuing spades. Declarer won the spade king and knocked out the heart queen, eventually regaining the lead to draw trumps and claim. In the end, this simply became a matter of knocking out the right stopper first, a theme more commonly found in preventing the defenders from establishing their long suit at no-trump.

“To him who is in fear, everything rustles.”

— Sophocles

ANSWER: Do not be afraid to enter the auction when you have decent controls and a good suit. Two diamonds is unlikely to go for a penalty, but it may get your side to a making game, or allow you to compete the part-score or push the opponents up. By contrast, if your diamond jack were the heart king, you should never overcall in direct seat on such a feeble fivecard suit. I would double instead.