aces on bridge

“If Little Timmy had just had more meatloaf, he might not have grown up to fill chest freezers with Cub Scout parts.”

— Anthony Bourdain

The best conventions are those that come up relatively frequently, are easy to remember and don’t require you to sacrifice a useful natural call to implement. Well, as Meat Loaf said in discussing Lebensohl, “Two out of three ain’t bad.” Lebensohl is an eminently forgettable concept, but once you have it in place after intervention to one no-trump, you can also use it in other relatively common sequences. Today’s auction is a case in point: South would have bid two no-trump, a puppet to three clubs, to show a weak hand with his own suit. His direct three hearts is encouraging, but not forcing (7-10 high-card points with either four or five hearts), and North has an easy raise to game.

The defenders cash two top spades, then shift to the club two. While this could be a singleton, East’s initial pass makes this somewhat unlikely. You win with the ace, ruff a spade in hand and lead a club to the king. When West follows up the line, you ruff dummy’s last club with the heart 10.

Having found West with six spades and three or more clubs, you cash the diamond king and lead a diamond toward the ace. You know that if West were to trump in, he would be ruffing a loser, and you would have the rest. When West follows twice, you know 11 of his cards. So, next play the heart ace and lead a heart to your nine. If it loses, West must give you a ruff-sluff; if it wins, draw the last trump and concede a diamond trick.

ANSWER: At matchpoints, you might consider playing hearts rather than diamonds. But at IMPs, you simply want to go plus by making your natural call: raise diamonds. If the opponents compete in a black suit, you can bid on to three diamonds, which will most likely end the auction.