ACES ON BRIDGE

Opening features Today’s one. a Lead: lowly deal Heart from part-score the five 2019 — but Gold an Coast interesting North opposite did very an well opening to settle bid. for However, four diamonds since the might picture, have three a been no-trump takeout more double might flexible. of have three been hearts in 1 ?

against George four Smolanko diamonds. His led partner, a low heart Peter Buchen, took his ace and returned a small heart so as not to give away the location of the heart queen. Declarer ruffed, tried a diamond to hand to find the bad news, then finessed the spade jack. Buchen won his queen and returned the suit, and now declarer should have known the club king was wrong — what else could West have for his overcall?

The best line now is to lead a low club from dummy to the seven.Then declarer can draw trumps and advance the club queen to pin the

10 — a classic example of an intra-finesse. When declarer instead played the club ace and another club after winning the spade ace, Smolanko cashed his master club to let Buchen pitch his third spade, then gave his partner a spade ruff for two down.

Oddly enough, if declarer had drawn trumps and cashed winners, losing two clubs and one trick in each major, down one would have earned him a 65% board! While a sizable percentage of the field came home in three no-trump by North when West supinely passed one diamond, many went down two in game.After the overcall, though, you ought to be able to stay out of game here.

ANSWER: Raise to two spades. This hand is appropriate for play in spades, with a shortness on the side and strong trumps. Rebidding two clubs might land you in a 4-3 club fit instead of a 5-3 spade fit, or you could even miss a spade game. If you bid two clubs then two spades over partner’s two-diamond call, you show a better hand. (You would need the heart ace instead of the king as a minimum for that action.)