ACES ON BRIDGE

The popular favorite in an English European Championship trial from 15 years ago was the one captained by Nick Sandqvist.The average age of the squad was about 40, but strangely, three of the players were in their 20s. The fourth was Tony Priday, who was close to 80 at the time.

David Gold, now a top professional but then still a junior, was declarer here. West led the heart two against the three-no-trump contract, and declarer, Gold, ducked in dummy. East took his king and returned the suit to dummy’s ace.

Gold took the diamond finesse, and the jack lost to the queen. Now his chances appeared to have evaporated, but West elected to exit with the club king. Gold ducked and won the next club, unblocking the nine from dummy.

Next, he cashed the heart queen-jack, then the diamond ace-king. On the diamond king, both West and North followed suit, but

East, who had pitched a diamond on the hearts, had to let go of a spade in order to keep his club guard.Now watch the denouement (known as a winkle)!

Gold cashed the spade ace and exited with his second spade — and what were the defenders to do? West could not afford to rise with the king, or he would crash East’s queen and have to concede the last two tricks to dummy.

However, when West ducked, East had to win and play a club away from his 10-seven into declarer’s tenace. Gold had not gotten that far into the hand to go wrong now; he inserted the eight, and the club jack represented his ninth trick. ?

ANSWER: It looks right to double, to get your side to four hearts when you have a fit.The alternative is three no-trump. After all, if you belong there, this is no doubt your last chance to bid it. Double still looks better, though, with this tenuous spade holding. A third spade would significantly increase your chances of holding up the spade ace long enough to exhaust West’s spades.

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