aceS on bridge

“Nothing has scathed me, Nothing ever, nor ever will. I have touched pitch, I have reveled in it and rolled in it ...”

-- Orrick Johns

Per-Olav Sundelin, known universally as P.O., was not playing for his native Sweden in the 2008 European Championships. His duties as Vugraph commentator, Daily Bulletin journalist and proofreader precluded this. P.O.’s command of English is such that he is able to correct not only the analysis but also the grammar of the native English-speaking scribes. Additionally, he wrote a series of bridge problems for the bulletins. Here is one of them, perhaps the hardest of the fortnight.

West leads the spade king against five diamonds, East contributes the jack, and you play your ace. On a diamond to dummy’s ace, East shows out, discarding a club. What continuation guarantees your contract?

Answer: Play a top club, and regardless of what card East contributes, even the ace, discard your losing spade! Should the club hold, give up a heart, then cash the ace and king of that suit. If West trumps in at any point, ruff the spade return, cash the diamond king, and ruff the fourth heart in dummy. If West has the club ace and takes it, win the major-suit return, give up a diamond, then draw the last trump and discard the two losing hearts in hand on the queen and jack of clubs.

And if East plays the club ace, discard a spade, win the return, and give up a trump. The trap is that should you mistakenly ruff the club ace, West can overruff, then play a low spade to East for another club ruff.

ANSWER: I don’t advocate rebidding one no-trump with three hearts and a side-suit small doubleton. Equally, raising with three small trumps is not ideal. Here you can also rebid clubs -- which might get you to no-trump the right way up, plus your clubs are almost as good as a six-card suit. In favor of the raise is that if you always support with three trumps and a doubleton, partner will have strong negative inferences when you don’t raise. I call it a tie!