ACES ON BRIDGE
Victory awaits him who has everything in order — luck, people call it. Defeat is certain for him who has neglected to take the necessary precautions in time; this is called bad luck. — Roald Amundsen
With a 4-3 fit in a suit and that suit not being bid or led against three no-trump, you would be really unlucky to find the suit breaking 5-1 or 6-0. Fortunately, on today’s hand, declarer’s luck held out. Alas for him, he failed to take full advantage of it.
West led a fourth-highest spade five against three no-trump, which was won perforce in dummy. Declarer noticed that he needed four tricks from diamonds. So at trick two, he led a low diamond from dummy, to the king. Crossing to dummy via the heart ace, South led another diamond. East astutely rose with the ace and saw that the diamond suit was now blocked. So instead of returning his partner’s suit, he attacked dummy’s last entry by switching to the club king, hoping his partner would come through with the jack for him, or that declarer had a doubleton club jack.
His luck was in; declarer ducked two rounds and took the third, but with the diamonds blocked, there was no further entry to dummy, and the game failed.
Had declarer crossed to dummy with the club ace for a second diamond lead, East would have been able to rise with the diamond ace and cash three club tricks; but those four tricks would have been all the defenders could take. If East attacked in hearts, South would win in hand with the king and cash the spade king and diamond queen. Now dummy’s last entry, the heart ace, could be used to access the two winning diamonds, and the game would come home.
BID WITH THE ACES
ANSWER: This is a tough decision but I believe it is essential to double when you have shortage in the suit bid and respectable values. While this would be a no-brainer to double in balancing seat, I think it is still equally clear to act here. There is no guarantee you won’t go for a number; but bridge is a game of percentages. You might also double a three- or four-spade opener, I suppose.