ACES ON BRIDGE

Logic is a large drawer, containing some useful instruments, and many more that are superfluous.A wise man will look into it for two purposes, to avail himself of those instruments that are really useful, and to admire the ingenuity with which those that are not so, are assorted and arranged.

— Charles Caleb Colton Defense may be the hardest part of the game, since partner’s hand is concealed, but sometimes logic will help you out. Declarer wins the opening diamond lead in hand with the king. He next plays a club to dummy’s queen and East’s ace. What should East do now?

At the table, East returned a heart. Declarer won with the ace and ran all his trumps. His last five cards were four spades and a diamond, while dummy kept three spades and an ace doubleton in diamonds. East wanted to keep four spades and two diamonds, but had to discard from one suit or the other, and either would be fatal.

Could East have done better? Yes, he had a chance to break up the squeeze by playing a second diamond when in with the club ace. West might have started with a singleton diamond, in which case the contract would have been beaten immediately. Furthermore, even if West had a doubleton diamond, although declarer could win a cheap trick with dummy’s 10, he would not be able to cash the ace without letting West obtain a ruff. His best play would be for spades to break, and when that did not happen, he would be one down.

Note that declarer could have succeeded anyway by starting with a high trump from hand at trick two. East wins (it does not help to duck) and must play a diamond. But now declarer can guess to draw West’s last trump with the club queen and cash dummy’s diamond ace, discarding his spade loser. ANSWER: Nothing is perfect here. A jump to three diamonds would be pre-emptive, and a simple raise of diamonds would not keep the opponents out (and would not help my partner compete, if appropriate). I’d gamble with the slight overbid of two clubs, a cue-bid raise promising limit-raise values. (A jump to three clubs to show a mixed raise - 6-9 high-card points and four trumps - is also a possibility.)