ACES ON BRIDGE

Our own faults are those we are the first to detect, and the last to forgive, in others. — Letitia Landon

Most Souths would advance over a onespade overcall from their partner with a bid of one no-trump; however, that contract could have been defeated on an unlikely spade lead.This South preferred a non-forcing twoclub call, raised to three by North.

That ended the auction, and West did not fancy any of his side-suit leads, preferring to try a trump instead.That was the only reasonable opening lead that could put the contract at risk. Declarer no longer had the tempo to play to ruff the third heart high, nor did he have the entries to establish dummy’s long spade. He could try for an endplay in the heart suit, but with the honors apparently divided, that would not have worked today.

Declarer saw another option. He could ruff three spades in his hand, bringing him to six trump tricks in addition to a spade and two diamonds. He won the club lead in hand, preserving dummy’s trump tops, and crossed to the spade ace before ruffing a spade high.Then came the diamond king, taken by West for a trump continuation. Winning in dummy, declarer ruffed another spade, cashed two rounds of diamonds ending on the table, and ruffed a third spade. He had dummy’s club ace to come for the ninth trick.

At trick four, West should have held on to his diamond ace, preventing dummy’s diamond jack from serving as an entry for the third spade ruff. Declarer still could have come home by ducking a heart, but the play would have been far more challenging.

ANSWER: Aces are excellent cards facing preempts, and you have ample support. Raise to four spades and hope partner makes it. This could even force West to guess whether he should act or pass. For all he knows, you might have a weak hand with spade support. If he sticks his oar in, he may regret it.