ACES On BRIDGE

In today’s deal, North-South had only 23 points between them and no huge fit, so game would seem a long way away. However, the young Polish player Piotr Butryn had no trouble both bidding and scoring up his game.

When West led the spade jack, East needed to overtake with the ace and return a heart to set the game. At the table, though, the spade jack held the first trick. West continued with a second spade, ruffed by declarer. How would you play?

One possible line would have been to cross to dummy with the heart ace to run the club jack. However, once East has the spade ace, the odds surely favor West holding the club king for his overcall. Additionally, even if the club jack held, what would you do now? Would you take another trump finesse or switch your attack to a red suit, choosing between a diamond finesse and a lucky guess in hearts?

Butryn went for a different line. He cashed the diamond ace and king. When this dropped the queen, he simply played clubs from the top and claimed his contract. Had the diamond queen not dropped, he would have played a third round of the suit, hoping that they broke 3-3. Then he would have won the return, crossed to dummy with the heart ace and finessed in clubs. Had the king been with East and the suit broken 2-2, he would then have made his game by discarding a heart on a diamond, then ruffing two hearts in the dummy.

ANSWER: When playing negative doubles, your inclination should always be to reopen in auctions of this sort, whether holding extra values or not, as long as you are short in the opponents’ suit. Here you have both extras and short spades, making your decision an easy one. Yes, you have only three cards in the unbid major, but that should not distract you from showing your basic hand type.

“There are three constants in life ... change, choice and principles.” -- Stephen Covey