ACES ON BRIDGE

Once lost, Jupiter himself cannot bring back opportunity. — Phaedrus

The following deal, from the final of last year’s Gold Coast pairs tournament, produced both a good story and a missed chance.

Playing five diamonds on the lead of the ace and another spade, Liam Milne found the best way to put pressure on his opponents. Having trumped the second spade, he crossed to dummy with a diamond and led a club toward his hand.

At his table, East split his club honors. So Milne won and drew another trump, then led a second club toward his hand. East went up with his remaining honor, and when his partner’s jack fell, declarer had the discard he needed. Incidentally, had West discarded the heart jack on the second trump,

East might have seen he should duck the second club.

Against the same contract, Barbara Travis

(who had shown 5-5 in the majors) led the spade ace and shifted to the club jack, giving South the chance to be a hero.

The winning line is to take the club ace, lead a trump to dummy to ruff a spade, then repeat the process. Having stripped the spades, you take the heart ace and king,

Now you lead a club from dummy, and when East wins the trick, he is endplayed. If he plays a spade, declarer ruffs in one hand and pitches the losing heart from the other. If he leads a club, whether it is a high or low one, declarer can set up a club winner and cross to hand with a trump to take the rest.

ANSWER: You have far too good a hand to pass. While repeating diamonds is possible, it feels better to ask partner to describe his hand by cue-bidding three spades. You would plan to raise a call in either minor or pass a bid of three no-trump.