ACES ON BRIDGE

We must never assume that which is incapable of proof.

— George Henry Lewes

After his forcing response of one notrump, North shows a three-card limit raise in spades, which you as South can comfortably raise to game.

You take West’s lead of the club queen with the ace and lead a low trump to the queen, which holds. When you cash the trump ace, West discards a club. What now?

You have three certain losers — two trumps and one diamond — as well as two more potential ones in hearts and clubs. The only hope is to run four heart tricks, discarding a club from table while East follows suit. (If East has three or fewer hearts, he can ruff in and cash the trump king, leaving you with a club loser.) Therefore, East needs to have at least four hearts, and under that assumption, you must play him to hold the heart queen. Basically, you need a layout like the one shown.

At trick four, play a heart to the ace and lead the heart 10. If East plays low, so do you. Next, you repeat the heart finesse and cash a heart winner to dispose of dummy’s losing club. A club ruff will be your eighth trick, and your ninth will be the diamond ace, leaving you with three low trumps in hand, which will suffice for your 10th trick.

If East covered the 10 of hearts with the queen, you would win the king, cross to dummy’s heart nine and lead a diamond to the ace. Next, you would throw dummy’s club on the heart jack and play as before.

ANSWER: I can think of no good reason to bid on.You have found a sensible fit at a sensible level; with the boss suit, you do not need to compete any further. If you pass and your left-hand opponent reopens, that will be the time for further bidding. Had your partner responded one heart instead, you might consider bidding one no-trump to keep the opponents out. But I think I would still pass.

If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, email him at bobbywolff@mindspring.com