ACES ON BRIDGE/ OPINION

“It is no matter what you teach (children) first, any more than what leg you shall put into your breeches.”

— Dr. Samuel Johnson

South took the low road with his 15-count by raising to two hearts, which North really should have passed. Facing a natural gametry of two spades, South needed no further persuasion to leap to three no-trump.

East won West’s diamond lead with the king and returned that suit to West’s jack. Then came the diamond ace, followed by the spade eight to the nine and ace, for the defenders’ fourth trick.

Declarer won the club shift and cashed another round of clubs, revealing the 5-1 split. South saw that if West held the spade jack, with East needing to retain his clubs, neither could hold onto three hearts. Thus, the contract would make even with the heart queen offside.

West was slightly more likely to hold the spade jack, as he had eight vacant places to his partner’s six. So declarer threw the heart jack on the spade king and then crossed to the heart ace to run the minors. West had to reduce to one heart on the last one, whereupon South pitched dummy’s spade 10. East was also forced to discard down to one heart, to keep his club winner, and declarer led a heart to the king to claim the game-going trick with dummy’s heart nine.

An alternative line would have been for declarer to throw a club on the spade king, playing West for length in both majors. This would work better if West had 4=4=4=1 shape without the spade jack and East held the doubleton heart queen. This line would have failed if East held queen-third in hearts, though.

ANSWER: You nearly could have sold me on a strong no-trump opening, but one club is the mainstream call. In any event, I would rebid one no-trump now. The hand is not worth a reverse into two diamonds, and I would prefer a better or longer suit for two clubs. As 15-counts go, this is much closer to 14, so the underbid really does not concern me.