ACES ON BRIDGE

The intellect of man is forced to choose Perfection of the life, or of the work. — W.B. Yeats

Terence Reese often asserted that two-suited overcalls on weak hands offer up a fielder’s choice to the opponents, who can either take a penalty when the hand is a misfit, or choose to declare with a blueprint of the distribution. That was certainly the case today when East wandered in over North’s forcing no-trump with less than zero excuse.

South did not exactly hold back when he freely rebid his hearts, and North was delighted to raise. West, not in on the joke, doubled the final contract, completing a revealing sequence.

Declarer took the club queen lead in dummy and assumed he was facing a 4-0 trump split. It was also good odds that the spade ace-queen were offside, so he set his sights on an endplay against West. He had to be careful, though, so as to not damage his chances should the spade queen be to his right.

He began by throwing a spade on the club king and ruffing a club low. He then crossed to the diamond king and returned to the diamond ace, West following all the way. South now led a low heart out of his hand. This had the effect of keeping dummy’s heart 10 as a potential menace for later on.

West went in with the heart jack and did his best when he shifted to a low spade. Declarer took the spade nine with the jack, then threw West back in with three more rounds of hearts. Down to nothing but spades, West had to lead into declarer’s spade tenace for a second time, conceding the doubled game.

BID WITH THE ACES

ANSWER: Hands with good spade support have several options. Your best call to get your shape and values across is to bid four clubs. You have lots of playing strength in support of spades and the right assets for slam — good trumps and controls. A four-club splinter describes your hand well — short clubs and at least the values for game.