ACES ON BRIDGE

“Great actions are not always true sons Of great and mighty resolutions.”

-- Samuel Butler

In today’s deal, you (as East) are faced with a dilemma that often occurs at pairs: Should you go active

or passive on defense? There are just enough clues here to work out the answer -- see if you can do so.

After a straightforward auction in which North produced a nonforcing raise and South suggested either a little extra, or maybe just a dose of optimism, partner leads the spade 10 to your queen. You then cash the ace, declarer following suit with the jack and partner playing the seven. What now?

Ignore declarer’s false-card in spades. Partner’s lead of the 10 guarantees shortness; so declarer started with three spades and at least five hearts. For the defense to succeed, you need to come to a trick in each minor. The minimum that you need to set the contract is for your partner to hold at least two of the missing high honors in clubs and diamonds -- try it for yourself, and you will see that declarer always has 10 tricks if he has the club ace or king, together with the diamond king.

Assuming that partner would have led a club if he held the aceking, you must switch to a diamond, hoping partner has both the dia- mond king and club ace. If you exit passively with a third spade or a club, declarer will build dummy’s clubs into a discard for his diamond loser, and will come to six hearts, a ruff, and three tricks in the minors.

ANSWER:

There is no universal agreement on what opener is showing here. I suggest it shows both minors (4-4 with better clubs or, more likely, 4-5 in the minors) without real extras. With a real reverse, opener jumps to three diamonds or forces to game by cue-bidding two spades. You have just enough to invite game by raising two diamonds to three, but do not suggest no-trump. Let partner do that if he has extras.