ACES ON BRIDGE

“All men are liable to error; and most men are, in many points, by passion or interest, under temptation to it.” — John Locke

East found a simple yet effective defense on this deal from a knockout match. South’s two-spade opening was two-suited, showing spades and a minor. North might have angled for the no-trump game, but he simply raised to the suit game instead. The play began along normal lines. Declarer ruffed the heart lead in hand and ran the spade jack to East’s queen. Seeing little future for three tricks in the side-suits, East focused on promoting his partner’s spade king. The idea would be to force the dummy, and in so doing, prevent declarer from repeating the spade finesse. There was only one suit in which this could be done: clubs. East needed his partner to have the club ace, and presumably the queen as well, or declarer could just win the third round in hand. However, East saw a way to give his side an extra chance by a timely deception. By cashing the club king and leading the four to his partner’s ace, he would give declarer an extra losing option. When West continued clubs, South had to decide whether to discard, risking defeat on a ruff when West had started with a doubleton trump king, or to ruff with the spade eight, which loses the contract on this layout.

When declarer fell for the trap and ruffed in, East-west had managed to set an apparently unbeatable contract. Had South begun with 5=0=4=4 shape, he could have saved himself this guess by throwing two clubs on the heart ace-king. As it was, though, he had little room to maneuver.

ANSWER: You should bid two spades and not consider doing more. It is perfectly acceptable to hold a maximum for your bidding now and again. The hand is potentially powerful in support of spades, but it does not have nearly enough to warrant a limit raise, either directly or through a forcing no-trump.