ACES ON BRIDGE

“A careless shepherd makes an excellent dinner for a wolf.”

-- Earl Derr Biggers

South could not see what could go wrong in three no-trump. He counted four diamond tricks, two additional aces and three spades, once the ace was knocked out. When South played low from dummy at trick one, he soon found out. East won the lead and returned the suit, and West could win the spade ace and cash out the clubs for down one.

We may all be familiar with the position where dummy holds ace-doubleton opposite 10-fourth, when a small card of this suit is led through dummy. The danger is when the suit breaks 5-2 and the long hand holds an entry; the correct play is to rise with the ace in order to block the run of the suit. The point is that East is almost certain to have one of the top three honors; otherwise, West would have led the king. If the suit breaks 4-3, there is no danger, and if it is 6-1, East will have no card to return when he obtains the lead.

But today’s situation is analogous: East is quite likely to hold two honors, since with for example K-J10-8-x, West’s recommended lead would be the jack (though a small card might be right, I admit).

So by rising with the ace, once again you should be able to block the suit. You can now knock out the spade ace safely, regardless of which defender holds it. Unless the club suit breaks 4-3, East will have a doubleton double-honor, and the suit will be blocked.

ANSWER: You are fairly and squarely in the middle of the range for your initial response, 6 to 10, and you have no real fit for either of your partner’s suits. The choice seems to be between a call of two no-trump and three no-trump, since a three-club rebid might suggest a sub-minimum hand with long clubs. I’ll settle for the two-notrump call, but give me the diamond 10, and I might go high, not low.