ACES ON BRIDGE

“For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.”

-- Aristotle

Today’s deal comes from an expert player, who was practicing online at www.bridgebase.com. (This is the best place both to play and practice online that I know.) He reported the deal anonymously, remarking that it was a pity his non-expert partner had not been the declarer here, since it would have given him a chance to demonstrate his technique, or at least to learn a valuable lesson if he failed to do so.

North-South were in danger of bidding too high, and South thought he had judged well not to press on to six clubs. Singleton honors are often difficult to evaluate, and North had perhaps been a little overenthusiastic.

When West led a spade, declarer had to decide how to play for 11 tricks. One line was simply to draw trumps from the top and, if there was a loser there, to guess diamonds. However, South spotted that if hearts were 4-3, he had a better line.

So he won the spade king, played the heart ace and led a heart to hand, then cashed the spade ace pitching a heart, and ruffed a spade. Now he played a club to his king and cashed the heart queen. When this stood up, he simply played a club to the jack. East showed out, and declarer could draw the last trump and claim. However, if East had won his doubleton trump queen, he would have been endplayed either to play a diamond or concede a ruff and discard.

ANSWER: Your partner’s second double is card-showing, not penalty. You have implicitly denied four cards in either major, or you would have acted over the first double. However, a 4-3 heart fit looks quite playable, and your clubs are not worth bidding at the three-level. So bid two hearts.