ACES ON BRIDGE

“Absence of occupation is not rest; A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.”

— William Cowper

On this deal from teams play, declarer had to be vigilant in the face of what appeared to be a simple contract. South's hand did not warrant a super-accept of the spade transfer at his second turn, but it was obvious to convert North's subsequent three-no-trump call to four spades.

On the helpful diamond lead, declarer could see three potential losers in the black suits since he could now park dummy's heart on the diamond jack. Still, if declarer did what came naturally and plonked down the spade tops, he would be in trouble if the club ace was offside and spades were 3-1.

So South topped East's diamond queen with the king and led back to the diamond ace, then tried a club to the king. This risked conceding a diamond ruff, but that would likely be at the cost of an enemy trump trick.

West won the club and wisely shifted to a heart. Declarer took the ace, and only then did he cross to the spade ace to take a heart pitch on the diamond jack.

When that held, he conceded a club. He could ruff the heart return in dummy, lay down the spade king and cross-ruff. West could take his spade queen whenever he wanted.

Note that if declarer had drawn even one round of trumps before crossing in diamonds to lead to the club king, he would have failed.

South would then have had to use the other top spade to reach his hand for the heart pitch. Then, when he lost the lead in clubs, West would cash the spade queen, limiting declarer to one club ruff.

ANSWER: This hand is worth a game try. The decision is between a help-suit try of three clubs or a reraise to three spades. Five trumps and two aces, including one in partner's long suit, justify a move, and three spades is the call least likely to help the opponents. With acefourth in clubs, I would make a try in that suit; but how can partner know that a doubleton queen is a bad club holding if I make a try on four small here?