ACES ON BRIDGE

Reaching six diamonds on this deal from the Lille world championships of 2012 is far from easy, though on a heart lead you would have to run the lead to your queen to survive. Others received a trump lead and spade shift, so had no problems. But let’s say West leads a low club; what next?

It looks natural to get the women and children off the street as fast as possible. To protect against 4-0 trump breaks, you need to lead toward the diamond king-queen rather than starting with the diamond jack. When East wins and shifts to a heart, you suddenly have a problem.

Did you notice that a heart shift was going to jeopardize your entries? (Don’t worry if you didn’t — there was nothing you could have done to avoid this.) You might as well put up the heart queen now, more in hope than expectation — you won’t get any value out of your queen, if you don’t.

When West covers, you take your heart ace and play a trump to the queen. Had trumps split 2-2, you would have been home free, but as it is, you need to unblock spades before drawing the last trump.

By cashing only two spades, you have left the suit temporarily blocked. But now comes the point of the deal: After drawing the last trump, you pitch your remaining spade honor on the club king and have unscrambled the blockage. You now have two homes for your heart losers: one on the spade jack and one on the spade 10.

ANSWER: Your partner’s double shows the unbid suit, hearts, and values. Even though everybody is bidding, it feels right to cue-bid two spades, looking for a red-suit game. If you jumped to three hearts directly, that would sound like four trumps. Delayed support for hearts should therefore suggest three trumps and a good hand.

“A few steps back is sometimes needed to find clarity in the confusion.” — April Mae Monterrosa