ACES ON BRIDGE

Today, your side has pushed your opponents to the five-level, but as West can you make them pay for their overbidding?

Against five spades, you kick off with the diamond king. When the dummy appears with a singleton, partner follows will the seven, neutral suit preference. Declarer surely has the missing aces and no trump loser. Partner’s initial simple raise suggests perhaps four diamonds, not five, so declarer may have something like a 5=2=3=3 pattern, which would allow you to score a heart trick. Where is the third defensive winner to come from?

Clubs offer your best chance, but it would not do to wait. Declarer will surely ruff out dummy’s hearts to dispose of his third club. If he needs to ruff two diamonds in dummy in the meantime, the club king may have to function as a late entry to the hearts. It is your job to attack that entry. While you need partner to hold the club jack, the same is not also true for the club 10.

At trick two, you must shift to the club queen. If instead you were to lead low and find declarer with ace-10-small, he would play low from dummy, capturing your partner’s jack. Then you would be unable to continue clubs effectively. By playing the queen, you present declarer with a losing option.

Declarer can hardly be blamed for letting the queen run to his ace as your partner encourages. South leads a trump to the jack and runs the heart jack to your queen, after which a second club play defeats the contract by force.

ANSWER: You should contest the auction with an overcall (Landy or whatever your methods) to show the majors. One must bring the majors into the auction when possible, and the club singleton makes it more attractive to act. Some would also act in direct seat with this hand; when non-vulnerable, I might be among that group. If vulnerable, it depends on how well my partner can take a joke.

BOBBY WOLFF