ACES ON BRIDGE

“The high tide!”King Alfred cried.“The high tide and the turn!” — G.K. Chesterton

Today’s deal cropped up in the mixed pairs event at last year’s European Open. Against three no-trump, West led the heart 10; when East overtook it with the jack, declarer Alfredo Versace won the king, unblocked the diamond queen, crossed to dummy with a club and cashed the diamond ace. The bad break was a blow, but Versace cashed a third top diamond (East pitching a club), and then played dummy’s spade queen, covered by the king — ducking would have worked no better — and ace.

Declarer now played two more rounds of clubs, putting West on lead. She could cash a second club and had two winning jacks, but then had to surrender two tricks to either South or dummy.

In hindsight, East should have kept all his clubs, so that he can win the third round of clubs. However, suppose East pitches two spades on dummy’s top diamonds? If West retains the diamond J-9, declarer plays the spade queen as before, and after that exits with the spade 10, pinning East’s nine.

Now if West cashes the diamond jack and exits with the nine, declarer follows with dummy’s eight, and West must surrender three tricks. West can counter this in unlikely fashion by unblocking the diamond nine earlier on, so that dummy can be thrown in with the diamond six.

The simplest defense is for East to pitch a spade and a heart on the diamonds. Then East covers the spade queen, and now West lets East win the third club or spade; the defenders take the rest.

ANSWER: While you have a very minimum opening bid, are you supposed to pass out one spade or raise to two as a sort of two-way shot, in case you can make game, or need to keep the opponents out of the fray? I’d raise to two spades and wouldn’t worry too much about what comes next.