aces on bridge

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

— Anonymous

When South opens one heart, North is too weak to respond at the two-level. His one-no-trump response merely shows that he is strong enough to keep the bidding open. South rebids two hearts, and North has to leave him there, rather than search for a better spot.

The defense leads spades, and when East wins his ace, he might shift to a club, but continuing spades is hardly absurd.

Perhaps West might now shift to clubs himself, but he plays a diamond to East’s ace, and now comes the club shift. This is the defenders’ last chance: To set the contract, West must follow with the king, not the jack - but that is far from obvious.

If he does not, declarer wins the ace, takes the spade jack, pitching his diamond honor, then cashes the diamond queen to discard a club, and ruffs a diamond with the seven. When he exits with his losing club, West must win and help reduce South’s trumps by returning his last spade.

At this point, South is down to four trumps. He must lose a trick to the king, but does not want to lose an additional trick to the 10. His best chance is to lead the queen, and, when that holds, to lead the jack. West must take the jack and return a trump, whereupon South scores his ace and nine, to take the last two tricks.

Note that if South had taken the heart ace before leading the heart queen, West would let the queen hold. He would then be in position to win the last two tricks with the king and 10.

ANSWER: Do not be fooled into thinking, “That is a cue-bid, so it must be based on club fit.” Doubling then bidding a suit, as long as it is one already bid on your left, is natural. So your partner has at least 17 HCP with a good heart suit. You have already shown values, so a simple call of two no-trump here seems right. That leaves room to get back to clubs, if necessary.