ACES ON BRIDGE

The devil was sick, the devil a monk would be; The devil was well, the devil a monk was he.

— Latin Proverb

The auction was odd in this, our final deal from the 2023 English Premier League.

West’s two-diamond overcall was the equivalent of a Michaels cue bid. (Two clubs would have been natural.) North doubled to show values, and East’s pass advertised diamonds. West retreated to two spades all the same, over which South balanced with two no-trump, a sound decision. North’s raise to game fetched a double from East.

The opening spade lead went to the king and ace. Back came the spade two, ducked to West’s eight as dummy shed a heart. West did not see the danger and shifted to a low heart next, allowing declarer to insert the nine-spot, knock out the diamond ace, and tackle clubs for two tricks by leading up to the king and then running the 10.

That brought him to nine tricks.

West would have done better to get out with the club ace and another club. Declarer would then be unable to make the hand for want of a heart menace in dummy. South would be discarding before West on the third diamond.

That is not the full story, however. Declarer would have done better to let go of a diamond from dummy on the second spade. Even if West played two rounds of clubs, declarer could later discard a heart from hand on the third diamond to squeeze West between the majors. East could counter that by ducking the diamond ace twice to avoid rectifying the count, but then declarer would throw West in with the fourth heart, opening up the hearts to his own advantage.

ANSWER: Rebid one no-trump. A singleton king is equivalent to a small doubleton in support. Your partner will rarely return to spades if he holds five, but if he does, your honor should be sufficient support. The alternative is to try two clubs, but whatever you do, do not rebid two diamonds on this flimsy five-bagger.