ACES ON BRIDGE

“Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income.”

— Ecclesiastes 5:10

To everything there is a season. Some things need to be done at once; others can wait.

This deal is from the first final session of the von Zedtwitz Life Master Pairs at last year’s nationals in Las Vegas. West stretched to compete over the two-heart overcall, but that did not prevent his opponents from barreling into game. Given the bidding, West should surely lead the spade nine to make East’s job easier, since his spade raise had already denied a doubleton. Note that if West leads a low spade, East may be seduced into continuing the suit without giving the problem enough thought, or into shifting to clubs.

But both of these plays are highly unlikely to be necessary. A spade can almost certainly wait: Where will the loser go unless declarer has precisely the diamond acejack doubleton?

Much more likely is that a club will be fatal when the cards lie as they do in the diagram. After all, declarer surely has the spade king and seven hearts plus either the diamond ace or the club ace for the bidding, and West’s simple spade raise suggests a value such as the diamond ace if he has only three low spades.

So, East must shift to a diamond at trick two. If they use the method in which mid-hand nines and 10s show zero or two high honors, East can play the nine. Otherwise a low diamond should suggest an honor. Either way, West can win and return the suit. Down one swung a passel of match-points compared to minus 420.

ANSWER: Bid three clubs. Partner’s advance shows values and should be forcing for one round by an unpassed hand (unless you play a jump to three diamonds as natural and forcing). A simple raise would not suffice here. The best call is to cue-bid three clubs, showing extras or fit, or both. You can always clarify your hand type later.