ACES ON BRIDGE

Warned off the disastrous club lead by South’s rebid, West chose the diamond two, playing third and fifth (count-based leads). Upon winning the diamond king, East read declarer’s jack as a singleton and shifted to the club six, a necessary move at double-dummy. Declarer ducked that to West’s queen, and back came a second diamond, which was ruffed in hand.

Placing the club king on his left after the club shift, declarer needed the spades to come in and trumps to split well. He cashed his heart tops, then started on spades, but West discarded on the third round and again on the fourth as declarer ruffed in hand.

When declarer exited with his trump, hoping to force a club return from West to escape for one down, the defense claimed the remainder of the tricks, West having thoughtfully thrown two diamonds but having retained a low one.

This hand exhibits the principle of not ruffing in with a trump winner too early. One should usually prefer to take two trumps for the price of one instead.

Here, if West had ruffed the third spade or overruffed the fourth, he would have been endplayed to give declarer the rest of the club suit or provide a fatal ruff-and-sluff.

Some credit should also go to East. From a double-dummy perspective, if he had lazily continued diamonds at trick two, declarer could have come home by ruffing a spade before drawing trump. West would to best to discard again, but declarer could still, in theory, come home if he reads the position perfectly and next ducks a club.

ANSWER: You have far too much for a preemptive raise to four spades, but an invitational three spades is also far from ideal. With great five-card support and a control on the side, you are still about a queen short of a Jacoby two no-trump, which forces your side to game. If a jump to three no-trump shows a raise to four spades with defense, you might do that; otherwise, lie a little with the Jacoby call. If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, email him at