ACES ON BRIDGE/ OPINION

Opening Lead: Diamond three

As East after a Stayman sequence, you see West table a fourth-highest diamond three against three no-trump. This goes to dummy’s nine and your queen, declarer following with the four. How should you continue?

It looks like your partner has led from ace-fifth. However, a count of the points shows that partner can have at most a jack outside, if that. This means he is unlikely to have an outside entry. Still, you should return a diamond because there is little future in any of the other suits. Partner takes the ace and continues with the diamond two, suit preference for the lowest suit, clubs. What now?

Partner is signaling a club entry, so it looks like he has the club jack and declarer has upgraded his hand, perhaps with a decent five-card club suit. If you defend normally, pitching a heart, declarer will lead up to his club honors twice, establishing four tricks there.

You must therefore pitch the club ace, paving the way for partner’s jack to score. No matter what declarer tries now, he must either allow West in with his club jack eventually, or let you get the setting tricks in spades.

Declarer would have done better to follow with the diamond jack at trick two, the card he was known to hold. West would surely duck, hoping to retain a link to the East hand facing the possible queen-eight-five. That would finish the defense: Declarer would overtake in dummy and play up to the top clubs twice to bring home nine tricks.

ANSWER: It is certainly wrong to pass here. The choice is to double or overcall in clubs, and despite the fact that you have a decent five-card suit, my strong preference is to double. After all, if your partner has a five-card suit, you surely want to play that strain, and who is to say that a 4-3 fit won’t play better than your suit? Try to ensure that you have six cards for a two-level overcall whenever you can.

If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, email him at bobbywolff@mindspring.com