ACES ON BRIDGE

Whoever can surprise well must conquer.

— John Paul Jones

Today’s deal was played by John Schermer in the top bracket of a regional knockout. You may want to consider it first as a single-dummy problem. Against five clubs, West leads the diamond jack, covered, and back comes a diamond. All follow; plan the play.

Schermer deduced that West was likely to have two clubs, since his choice of a doubleton jack lead suggested he did not have shortage in any of the side-suits. Also, if trumps were 2-2, there would be more endplay chances.

So he took the club king and led toward the ace, collecting West’s doubleton queen. Now Schermer asked himself why West had led diamonds rather than spades, given that he presumably had the heart ace (since he had not led the suit).

One plausible explanation was that he also had a significant spade doubleton.

With the idea that East had started with the spade king and 5-33-2 shape, Schermer now made a play I’ve never seen before: After cashing the third diamond, he led the spade queen from dummy, covered by the king and ace, putting West in the hot seat. When that player did not unblock his jack, he was endplayed with a spade. West had to lead hearts, and that set up the discard declarer needed for his losing spade.

Had West unblocked the spade jack under the ace, Schermer would have crossed to the board with a diamond to lead a spade up to his nine, and again held his spade losers to one.

ANSWER: I don’t want my readers to think I’m going soft, but facing a passed partner, I think it is reasonable to double rather than overcall one no-trump. With a marginal hand for the no-trump overcall, you can sensibly choose the safer action. Your extra values mean that if partner competes, he will not find dummy unexpectedly disappointing.

If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, email him at bobbywolff@mindspring.com