ACES ON BRIDGE

“Respect was mingled with surprise, And the stern joy which warriors feel In foemen worthy of their steel.” — Sir Walter Scott

Today’s deal saw South double a weak two and North respond three clubs, natural invitational and value showing. With a weaker hand, North would have bid two no-trump as a puppet to three clubs, planning to pass with long clubs or correct to his long red suit if he had one. This convention is known as Lebensohl and originally applied only after a one no-trump opener, but its use has been extended to today’s sequence. For more information see: www.bridgebum.com/lebensohl_over_weak_two.php.

After this start, South bid his hearts, used key-card when his partner cooperated for that suit, and drove to seven no-trump, knowing he might be able to claim the contract at trick one.

As it turned out, though, when dummy came down with surprisingly weak clubs, the contract required careful play. It looks obvious to peg West, the non-preempter, with long clubs, but South went the extra mile. He won the spade lead, cashed the top hearts, pitching spades from dummy, and then made the key play of the diamond king and queen. Had both hands followed, declarer would have started clubs by leading a top honor from hand. When East discarded on the second diamond, he was almost sure to have begun with precisely a 6-2-1-4 pattern. So declarer led a club to the ace and back toward his hand, putting in the nine when East played low. Had East split his honors, it would have been easy to cross back to the diamond ace to take the marked club finesse.

ANSWER: Facing a balanced minimum hand, it is undeniably possible that your side might make game. This will happen no more than one time in 10, perhaps, since you are offering your partner no source of tricks and just a 10count. That being so, respond one no-trump rather than raising clubs with an inverted minor response. Do not jeopardize your plus score in search of the pot of gold.