ACES ON BRIDGE

“War no longer pays; there is no motive for aggression.”

— Ludwig von Mises

This deal, the last of our themed week, reiterates the concept of attacking the throw-in suit.

After North shows a sound club raise, West may consider bidding on at his second turn. Indeed, both three diamonds and three hearts would come home. However, when both East and West take the low road, they must focus instead on taking five tricks on defense.

The diamond lead goes to the king and ace, and East shifts to the heart king. West knows that East has four hearts headed by the king-queen, so it must be safe to overtake — but to what end?

If East had started with only four diamonds, the defenders would prevail. Declarer would hold 2=2=3=6 shape and would have to lose two tricks in each red suit, along with a spade. The dangerous case is the actual layout, where declarer has three spades to the ace and is threatening to eliminate the red suits, draw trumps and exit with the spade ace and another spade. Whether East unblocks his king or not, the defense is helpless.

The defense must attack spades at once, while they still have plenty of safe exits. East cannot lead spades safely from his side, but West can. He must overtake the heart king with the ace and shift to the spade 10, a surrounding play to overcome a possible ace-nine in declarer’s hand.

Declarer does best to play low from dummy and win his ace, then give up a heart, but as long as the defenders get East’s spade king out of the way, declarer will be left with a second spade loser at the end.

ANSWER: Pass. You must not overcall two diamonds with this moderate five-bagger and minimum values. (Please, don’t even consider that action!) Doubling might work, but it would risk a highly unwelcome two-club response. If you aren’t prepared to take that risk, passing is the only option. Your plan might be to balance with a double at your second turn if the opponents come to rest in a black suit.