ACES ON BRIDGE

HOPE, n. Desire and expectation rolled into one.

— Ambrose Bierce

West’s two-heart preempt was weak with hearts and a minor. South did well to balance with a call of two no-trump rather than two spades to show his hand type, and North mustered a raise.

When West led the heart 10 to East’s jack, declarer knew he had to shut out the hearts. Given that they were splitting 5-2, and that East would have won with the ace if he had it, the best chance by far was to find East with queen-jack doubleton plus the spade ace. So South took a deep breath and ducked the first trick, trying to cut the defensive link.

When South ducked the heart queen at trick two, East exited with the club jack, won in dummy. Declarer then played a spade to the king before unblocking the club ace. West’s discard tipped declarer off to the full layout. If West had five cards in each red suit, might he not have tried the sneak attack of a diamond instead of a heart, the suit his partner had not raised, and that declarer was prepared for?

West’s hand appeared to be 3=5=4=1, so rather than cross to the diamond king for a further spade lead, stranding the club queen in dummy, declarer led a low spade out of his hand. That felled the ace, so South scored four spade tricks to go with three clubs and two diamonds.

It might seem that West would have done better to overtake the heart queen with the ace and continue with the nine, suit preference to allow East to jettison the spade ace and create an entry to his partner. Readers may enjoy calculating how declarer could still find a way home!

ANSWER: You were, of course, intending to pass a mere completion of the transfer to two hearts, but now that partner has jumped to show a good hand with four hearts, you should push on to game. This is going to be tight, but the singleton could be worth its weight in gold. Similarly, if the cards do not fit, three hearts may be in danger.