ACES ON BRIDGE

“The king was in his counting-house Counting out his money; The queen was in the parlor Eating bread and honey.” — Nursery rhyme

In today’s exercise in counting, South is at the helm in three spades.

East pushes to three diamonds over two spades, knowing of a nine-card fit, and South bids one more for the road, perhaps unjustifiably. It is hard to imagine either three diamonds or three spades making; both of them could easily go down. If that is the case, you would prefer to defend. Even here, with North-South having a double fit in the blacks, three spades is touch-and-go.

West leads the heart 10, deciding that a diamond attack can probably wait. East grabs the heart ace and cashes two rounds of diamonds, followed by the club ace. When West discourages, East goes back to hearts. How should declarer tackle the spades now?

It might seem like a guess, with West’s hand expected to have longer spades based on the auction. However, East has shown up with 13 points, and you have to hope he does not have a singleton spade — unless that singleton is the queen. Declarer therefore places at least two spades with East, and at least two clubs. If East had a singleton club ace, he would have cashed it before playing a second diamond, to collect a ruff.

Thus, East has a balanced hand, and with honors in both black suits, he surely would have opened one no-trump if he held the spade queen as well. A 15-count with 2=4=5=2 shape makes for nasty rebid problems after partner responds one spade.

So declarer cashes the spade ace and successfully finesses dummy’s 10.

ANSWER: You could rebid one no-trump, but your honor structure is better suited to a trump contract, so bid two diamonds. Your diamonds are good enough to play opposite a singleton if need be, so two diamonds need not be the wrong partscore even if your side has no fit. By the way, if you switch the black suits, a close decision becomes far easier with the two-diamond call standing out.