ACES ON BRIDGE

“Intelligence takes chances with limited data in an arena where mistakes are not only possible but also necessary.”

— Frank Herbert

Declarer was weighed in the balance and found wanting in today’s deal.

West’s negative double did not put North off the spade suit. He could make a descriptive fit jump, showing five good spades, four-card heart support and invitational values. South had some extras, and the useful spade filler persuaded him to press onward to the heart game.

West kicked off with the diamond king. Declarer won that and, thinking the hand was only about overtricks, laid down the heart king. When West showed out, the game was suddenly in danger. Declarer had to seek diamond discards on the spades, so he continued with the spade ace and king. The spade queen came next, ruffed low and overruffed.

Declarer crossed to the heart ace and ruffed out the opponents’ remaining spades, but he lacked a quick entry back to dummy to make use of the long spade there. When he led the club queen from hand, East won, cashed the heart queen and returned a diamond for one down on a hand where declarer could have made a slam.

Declarer should have started with the heart ace since East could hardly have 11 cards in the minors, but his most serious mistake was not ducking the first diamond on general principle, to cut the defensive communications. Even then, the game would have made if only South had taken the percentage play of finessing the spade 10 on the second round. He needed quick discards and knew that West had four spades. Then, the heart ace entry would have sufficed to allow him to make all the discards he needed.

ANSWER: A negative double would normally show 4-4 in the majors. While you might double with more shape than that (especially with five hearts and four spades) and only enough for one bid, that is not the case here. Start with one spade in order to get your shape across. You expect to be able to rebid in hearts.