ACES ON BRIDGE

No more Hope, no more Glory, no more parades for you and me.

— Ford Madox Ford

North-South reached a very delicate four-heart contract here, but South justified his partner’s optimistic bidding.

North’s one-diamond overcall was hardly classical, with a bid of no-trump being the obvious alternative. Subsequently, when North did not get the hoped-for re-opening double of two clubs, he took a flyer at four hearts.

West kicked off with the club queen, taken in dummy. Declarer saw the impending threat of a club ruff, so he had to maneuver to throw his club on a diamond. With West holding all of the defenders’ values, South thoughtfully crossed to the spade ace to play a diamond to the queen. He then pitched his club on the diamond ace, West dropping the king, the card he was known to hold.

South’s next move was to ruff a diamond high. There seems to be little purpose to this play, but in fact it turned out to be crucial. Declarer next turned to the trump suit, and West did well to cash both trump winners before getting off play with a club. Declarer put in dummy’s 10 and overruffed East.

South was left needing to tackle spades from his hand. Today, it did not matter which spade he played, because West would be endplayed to give the lead to dummy’s winners. But if declarer had not ruffed that third diamond to remove West’s exit card, he would have been on a genuine guess at this point. He would have had to play the spade two out of his hand, which would have looked silly if West had 3=2=2=6 shape!

ANSWER: Bid one club. Some modernists would open a slightly off-shape no-trump. Although the honor structure is right for that, the hand is too good overall, and it would be all too easy to miss a club slam or game. The most accurate plan is to open one club and rebid a natural two no-trump over any response from your partner. In competition, a three-club rebid may also be possible.

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