ACES ON BRIDGE

This deal from the Denver Board-aMatch Teams was declared by Wafik Abdou, playing with Connie Goldberg.

Abdou ducked the lead of the club eight to East’s queen. He won the shift to the heart queen (West suggesting three cards there) and ran the spade jack to East’s king. East got out with a trump, taken by the ace in dummy. Abdou then played a low diamond away from the king.

East tried to avoid the endplay by rising with the diamond ace and returning the suit. This now led to a beautiful ending after Abdou won with the queen, drew trumps and played a fourth round, throwing dummy’s club jack.

When declarer leads a diamond to the king, East is caught in a trump squeeze. If he pitches a club, declarer cashes the club ace, felling the king, and ruffs a heart to hand to enjoy the club 10. If East pitches a heart, declarer cashes the heart ace and ruffs a heart, returning to dummy with the club ace to cash the good heart eight.

There are two points of interest: If, after winning the diamond ace, East exits with the heart jack instead of the diamond, declarer can win with the ace and either follow the same line or lead the heart eight, pinning the heart six to establish the heart five as his 10th trick.

Can you find the simple (not necessarily easy) way to set four spades? All East had to do was to return a club at trick two! Now that player wins the spade king to give partner a club ruff, and Bob’s your uncle.

ANSWER: Double. The goal of almost any takeout double early on in an auction should be to reach game.Your most likely game is in hearts. To overcall two clubs and act later would suggest six clubs or more shape, so double immediately and be prepared to double again if necessary. Meanwhile, bidding one no-trump is too dangerous, even for me.