ACES ON BRIDGE

“None but the well-bred man knows how to confess a fault, or acknowledge himself in an error.”

— Benjamin Franklin

Reading through the columns of the late Omar Sharif, I spotted this confession from a Macallan Invitational Pairs tournament. Sharif played this board against Nicola Smith and Pat Davies, who eventually finished second — a feat Davies considers one of her greatest achievements.

Against three no-trump, Smith led the spade jack, which was ducked to Sharif’s king. Sharif led a club to the ace, then a second club. Smith ducked this trick and took the next club as Davies pitched two spades. At this point, it was obvious to Smith to switch to a heart, and that defeated the hand.

It was only later that declarer realized what he could have done. If he had crossed to dummy with a diamond at trick two, to play a club to the jack, it would have been nearly impossible to duck this trick. Now the shift to a heart would have been that much more difficult, since West would not have seen a discard from her partner.

By contrast, when I declared three no-trump against Sabine Auken and Daniela von Arnim, I received the same spade lead, but Auken astutely won with her ace and shifted to hearts.

I won the third round of hearts and decided that East appeared to have nine cards in the majors, which made her partner more likely to have club length. So I crossed to hand with a spade to run the club jack. I repeated the finesse in that suit, and now I could pick up the clubs for five tricks to make my contract.

ANSWER: This is tricky, since many play two-level responses in a new suit here as non-forcing. But if you redouble, you can next bid spades, no matter how many hearts the opponents bid. Similarly, a jump to two no-trump shows a limit raise or better. Even though that normally shows four trumps, your unbalanced hand makes the action sensible. A splinter jump to four hearts would guarantee four trumps.