ACES ON BRIDGE

1 Pass

2 Pass

3 NT All pass

Opening Lead: Diamond five

The West players on this hand from the 2018 World Youth Team Championships round robin would have done well to be aware of Rixi Markus’ Bols bridge tip: “When, as a defender, you are about to attack from a holding such as J-x, Q-x or K-x, consider the possible advantage of leading a low card.”

The Netherlands’ Oscar Nijssen and Tim van der Paverd, along with Adam Stokka and Simon Hult of Sweden, were the only pairs to defeat three no-trump from the South seat.

West led a low diamond, and declarer ducked the lead, hoping that East’s continuation would help him decide whether diamonds were 5-3 or 4-4. When East continued with the diamond eight, apparently from an original three-card holding, declarer ducked.

Nijssen, West, won with his queen and could see there was no future in the diamonds.

Hearts represented the best hope of setting up tricks there, but to play the heart queen would give the defense no chance — declarer would win the ace, cross to hand and take the club finesse.

So West found the excellent shift to the heart nine, and when declarer played low from dummy, East, van der Paverd, did likewise.A heart continuation then set the game, East scoring his heart king when he gained the lead in clubs.

Declarer might have guessed to block the hearts by rising with the ace. Playing low would have worked only against a sleepy East, while inserting the jack would bear fruit only if West had underled the heart king-queen.

ANSWER:

On this sequence, try to avoid a two-no-trump call with a small doubleton in an unbid suit. That could easily lead to the wrong contract, or to wrong-siding three notrump, even if it is the right spot. The texture of your spades justifies a two-spade rebid; this call does not promise a six-carder — unless by agreement.

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