ACES ON BRIDGE

In today’s deal, the route to three notrump looks too easy. There must be a catch here, right?

When South responds one heart to his partner’s opening, North rebids his long suit. Now South, with a full opening bid and stoppers in all the unbid suits, can bid game in no- trump; no other contract looks appealing, and slam is a long way away.

After a small spade lead by West, South puts up dummy’s spade queen at the first trick because the queen may win a trick now, but can never win a trick later. ( If dummy had queen- third of spades, you would duck, naturally, to preserve your second spade trick if West had led from the ace.)

As it happens, the queen holds the trick, and South knows that West has led from a long suit headed by the ace. It is now necessary to develop the long diamonds without allowing East on lead. If that happened, East would continue the attack on spades, and West would then defeat the contract by running his suit.

Once you see the problem, the solution is relatively easy. At trick two, you should lead a low diamond from dummy and finesse the nine. If this finesse loses, the rest of the suit will be good, and West can do no harm.

As it happens, the finesse wins. The rest of the suit is good, and South is off to the races. If South had played the diamonds from the top, he would have lost a trick to East’s jack, and the spades would then defeat him.

ANSWER: Your partner’s pass of one diamond redoubled, when “under” as opposed to “over” the trumps, should not suggest playing there. It indicates that he has no clear call ( otherwise he would have acted already) and asks you to run to your cheapest real suit. Bid one heart and take it from there. Contrast this position with one where you reopen with a double, and your partner’s pass of a redouble would be to play. If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, email him at bobbywolff@mindspring.com

Evil is easy and has infi nite forms. — Blaise Pascal