ACES ON BRIDGE

“A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm.” — Henrik Ibsen

This hand came along at the 2017 Vanderbilt Trophy in the North American Spring Nationals; at the wheel was Jan Jansma of the Netherlands.

West opened the bidding light, then compounded his felony with a support double to show three hearts. This didn’t keep Northsouth from reaching the spade game, though, after North made an unassuming cue-bid. South suggested no-trump initially, then despite his partner’s retreat to three spades, he awarded himself a fourth spade.it is difficult to consider any lead other than a top diamond from West’s hand, and it was the king that was tabled. West switched to his singleton trump at trick two, but it came too late. Jansma won with dummy’s ace, finessed the heart queen successfully, cashed the heart ace and ruffed a third heart low in dummy.

Then, planning to ruff his last heart in dummy, declarer played a low club toward his queen. Divining declarer’s intentions, East rose with the ace and played another trump. This served to give declarer a 10th trick, but it was not immediately clear how South could make use of it, given the club blockage and the lack of a side-suit entry to dummy. However, South drew the rest of East’s trumps and cashed his club queen. He then exited with his last heart. East won with the king, but with no diamonds remaining, he was forced to resurrect dummy’s club king for the game-going trick. East had been used as a steppingstone to reach dummy’s stranded winner.

ANSWER: I would pass here. A two-level overcall usually promises a six-card suit and for good reason. Even though I have excellent diamonds and want them led, I have no desire to win the contract, and my heart holding is very bad for declaring. The real danger may be that partner leads a club, not a diamond, against a spade game; I’ll pay off to that.