ACES ON BRIDGE

Vulnerable: Both

Dealer: South

The bidding:

South West North East

1 NT Pass 3 NT All pass Opening Lead: Heart five

“A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.”

— William Greenough Thayer Shedd

Continuing with our theme of preventing the defenders from setting up their long suits, declarer goes to great lengths to lose the lead to the safe hand here.

West kicks off with the heart five against three no-trump. To try to protect his heart king, declarer plays dummy’s queen. Now he has a heart stopper against West, but not East. Thus, while developing the diamonds, declarer should strive to keep East off play.

The first move is to call for the diamond jack, intending to run it. When it is covered by the king and ace, declarer should return to dummy with the club king to lead the diamond nine. When East plays low, declarer runs it, pinning West’s eight, to score up an overtrick.

Had declarer played diamonds differently, East could have gained the lead to return a heart through the king. If the diamond eight had not appeared on the second round, declarer would have little choice but to clear the suit, hoping West had the 13th diamond.

Technically, though,

West defended poorly by following with the diamond five at the second trick. By doing so, he would have blocked the suit when East had king-10-seven. Declarer might return to dummy and lead the four in order to duck the second diamond into the safe West hand. As the cards lie, East cannot afford to play the diamond 10. By unblocking his eight, though, West would clear the way for East to gain the lead in diamonds if he had the seven in place of the six, no matter what declarer tried.

ANSWER: This double is best played as takeout, not penalty (the point being that the opponents can almost certainly find a safe haven in two diamonds — or perhaps two clubs — if they cannot make one no-trump). But there is no easy way into the auction if your partner has both black suits; so the double should be takeout, and thus a call of two spades makes good sense here.

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