ACES ON BRIDGE

“When people will not weed their own minds, they are apt to be overrun with nettles.” -- Horace Walpole

There are plenty of reasons to delay the drawing of trumps, such as playing a crossruff, but a bad trump break may also necessitate an indirect route to the goal. In that case, a trump coup, as we see in today ’s exhibit, may achieve the desired result.

Against four hearts, East took the club 10 lead with the king, cashed the ace, and exited with the club five. After discarding the diamond two from hand and winning the trick with dummy’s club jack, declarer played the heart ace, then led a heart to the 10.

So far, so normal; but when West discarded a spade, South had only nine sure tricks, with the best chance of achieving a 10th trick coming from a trump coup. For this to work, an opponent would have to be on lead when declarer’s trump length had been reduced to that held by East.

So, South played a spade to the ace and ruffed a spade. Had he now played a diamond to the ace and then led a third spade, East would have discarded a diamond and would then have been able to ruff away the diamond king. But declarer first played the diamond king, then a diamond to the ace, before playing another spade. Now East could only discard a club as declarer ruffed. Since South now held the heart K- J and the diamond jack, he could exit with the latter and could not be prevented from taking the last two tricks.

ANSWER: The three- club call indicates a very good hand -- and it should not be a limit or gameforcing hand in spades, since with that you would bid spades or jump descriptively to the fourlevel. Partner might be hoping to see you bid three no- trump with a club stopper, but your hand is both unsuitable for this call and too good for that action anyway. Cue- bid four clubs and find out what your partner wants to do next.