ACES ON BRIDGE

The surprise result of the 2011 European Open Championships was the capture of the gold medal in the Women’s Teams by the Turkish team. They beat a tough French squad in the semifinals and a very distinguished Netherlands team in the finals.

This hand is from the finals of that event, demonstrating that pre-empting is a two-edged sword. In both rooms, South opened one heart. Bep Vriend for the Netherlands had an uninterrupted passage to four hearts. West cashed the club ace, and declarer ruffed the club continuation. With only a slight clue that anything might be amiss, Vriend made the natural play of the heart ace from hand, and that left her with two inevitable trump losers. Needing to set up spades, South tried a spade to the 10. When this lost to the queen, she could not avoid going one down.

In the second room, West overcalled South’s one-heart opener with three clubs. North bid four hearts, and the lead and continuation duplicated the action from the other table. On ruffing the second club, Dilek Yavas knew enough from the auction to start trump by leading a heart to the king, then continued with the spade jack, which held. A spade to the ace was followed by a third spade. East ruffed and returned the diamond ace, trumped in dummy. Now, using spades in the manner of a second trump suit, Yavas played on that suit, and East could come to just one further trick, the heart queen. Game made.

ANSWER: There is no good answer here. If you pass, you may defend when your side could have made game in a major. If you bid and partner repeats his diamonds, then you will wish you had kept silent. My vote is for the pessimistic pass. Partner will re-open with short clubs, and you can reassess the position. If partner passes with club length, you may have missed nothing.

“Those who are easily shocked should be shocked more often.” -- Mae West