AceS On briDge

“Henceforth I ask not good fortune, I choose good fortune.”

— Walt Whitman

Following a one-no-trump opening call, what do transfer breaks mean after a red-suit transfer? Some use the jump to three as a maximum with four trumps, and a call of two no-trump as three good trumps and a maximum. Additionally, though, new suits can be used to show a source of tricks (or a doubleton, if you prefer). Regardless, you’d expect South to play in four spades here.

After the diamond queen is led to the king and ace, the defenders have two choices, each producing an elegant winning line for declarer.

Say East continues with a second diamond. Then, when West wins and shifts to a spade, declarer draws trumps and plays the club king, a club to the ace and a third club. If East follows, declarer puts in the 10 and claims 10 tricks, because if West wins, he is endplayed to concede a ruff-sluff or to lead a heart into the tenace, and declarer can discard a heart from dummy on the master club. If East shows out on the third club, declarer takes the queen and leads a fourth club, discarding from dummy to endplay West again.

What if East shifts to a heart at trick two? Declarer takes the ace, draws trumps, ruffs out the clubs, if necessary, then leads his second diamond from hand, to endplay West in a different way.

East’s best defense at trick two is to lead the diamond nine. If the 10 and eight were switched, East could retain the lead and exit in either hearts or clubs to have a chance to defeat the game.

ANSWER: North is unlikely to have even as much as the doubleton ace in spades. Since he did not rebid his clubs initially, he might have given preference to spades at his third turn if he could. You have a choice of forcing calls in the red suits to probe: Three diamonds looks best. You can revert to five clubs if partner raises, but you do not want to suggest half a heart stopper, as a call of three hearts might do.