ACES ON BRIDGE

“Between the day and the daylight, When the night is beginning to lower,

Comes a pause in the day’s occupations, that is known as the Children’s Hour.”

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

When West led the club jack against the heart slam, declarer sensibly reviewed all his options at trick one. Always plan your play before detaching a card from dummy: Mistakes made in haste can only be repented at leisure, not undone.

Declarer knew he could afford to lose one trick, and there were three suits to negotiate. The spade finesse would have to be taken sooner or later, though, and because the outcome of this would depend on how he played the rest of the hand, South led the spade queen at trick two.

West covered, dummy’s ace won, and the club king took care of declarer’s spade loser. South ruffed dummy’s last club, then cashed the spade jack. Now, with only red cards left in his hand, South led the heart jack. When no king appeared from West, declarer rose with dummy’s ace, ruffed dummy’s last spade, then played a low heart, not caring who won the trick. At this point, the defenders would have to give him a ruff-sluff or open up diamonds to his advantage. A 3-0 trump break would leave declarer needing to guess diamonds, but that is far less likely than a 2-1 trump break.

If the spade finesse had lost, declarer would have taken the trump finesse, the best play to avoid losers in abstract. Had that succeeded, the losing diamond would have been discarded on the club king.

ANSWER: You should pass for the time being. You lack the values for a two-club call, and raising a diamond opening, which may be based on three cards, should promise four trumps. It is not necessary to act just because you would have responded uncontested. Passing does not guarantee a bust; you may be able to balance if the opponents raise to two spades, perhaps with an unusual two-notrump call.