ACES ON BRIDGE

“The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided. Sometimes it is better to abandon one’s self to destiny.”

— Napoleon Bonaparte

When South opens one club, West overcalls in hearts. Now, rather than raise clubs directly, North cue-bids to show a strong hand. A jump in clubs would be pre-emptive. Since South has a stopper in the enemy’s suit, he bids two no-trump (a nonforcing call facing a limit raise), and North raises him to game.

After the low heart lead, South can see that he needs at least two club tricks to make his contract. All will be fine if the club finesse happens to work, but if the club finesse loses, South must expect to have to face an avalanche of hearts.

It looks normal to put up the heart queen from dummy and cross to hand to try the club finesse. However, when this loses, a heart return gives West five tricks in that suit, to take the contract two down.

South must take out insurance against a losing club finesse by ducking the opening lead in both hands. Since East has only two hearts, this unusual holdup play will bring home the contract today. South can later take the club finesse in safety, as East will not be able to get to his partner’s hand for the rest of the hearts.

Note: this play would not work if hearts were 5-3 and the club finesse lost — but then the contract could never be made. Also note that if the club queen and ace are switched, it is safe to win the heart queen and run the club queen into the less dangerous hand.

ANSWER: In auctions of this sort, assuming you lead from one of your four-card suits, there are no inferences about whether to lead majors or minors. You look at the quality of the two suits and look for sequences to lead from. When you don’t have any sequences, look for the suit least likely to cost a trick. Here, a diamond is both more likely to set up tricks and less likely to cost, thanks to the 10-spot.