ACES ON BRIDGE

I have to admit I might have duplicated East’s actions on today’s deal, and paid exactly the same penalty for an overactive imagination.

East was outside the range for a strong no-trump. He opened one club, and South’s simple overcall in diamonds was passed back to him. You could argue he might have left well enough alone; West surely had to be weak because he could not hold diamonds and a penalty double, given East’s diamond holding.

But East reopened with one heart anyway, letting South compete with an imaginative and aggressive jump to two spades, and now North rubbed it in by giving South a chance to bid game.

West kicked off with the heart 10, and South played low from dummy, on both the first and second rounds of the suit. After ruffing low in hand, he drew two rounds of trumps, relieved to see the suit break, and now felt confident from the bidding that East held the diamond king.

To keep West off play, he led the diamond ace then the queen, and had achieved his objective. (Had he let West in, a third heart would have set up a heart winner for the defenders eventually.)

East did his best to force declarer again by playing the heart ace, but declarer ruffed with his last trump, trumped a diamond in dummy to set up the suit, then played a club toward his king. East had to take his ace, or lose it, but that was the end of the defense. ANSWER: I can’t say I’m wild about it, but I would bid two hearts now, figuring that the opponents have a fit and so do we, and that we should do our best to push our opponents up to the three-level. Of course, if playing with an aggressive partner, I can see why it might be right to pass and let partner take up the slack. But since we are facing a very good hand, we might easily make game somewhere.