ACES ON BRIDGE

“With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout, Confusion worse confounded.”

— John Milton

Declarer had finesses available in all four suits here; the question was which ones to take.

West had a tricky lead problem, and since no one likes to underlead kings against suit contracts, he chose the heart five. Declarer’s first decision came at trick one: Was it right to play low or put up the queen? South thought inserting the queen made sense. If that held, declarer could go after spades with an excellent chance of success. The alternative of taking the minor-suit finesses was not as good, since a winning diamond hook would not avoid losers in the suit if East had king-fourth.

On today’s layout, finessing the heart queen meant the defenders could not be denied a trick in each suit. But say declarer reasons that players are not apt to lead away from kings. On that basis, he might play low from dummy. East would win the heart king and shift to a minor. A diamond would give declarer an easy ride, so let us say that he chooses a club. Declarer plays the ace, takes a club pitch on the hearts and runs the spade seven. West wins and gets out with the club king, which declarer ruffs.

Now declarer advances the diamond queen from hand, hoping to force an entry to dummy. If West wins, declarer has no more decisions to make. If West ducks instead, declarer might have to choose whether to lay down the spade ace or continue with the diamond jack, but either play works.

ANSWER: You have too much for a one-spade overcall with all your hand playing so much better than the sum of its high-card points, and so many of the finesses expected to be working. So double, then bid spades to show a strong hand. You do not need to worry too much about being preempted or partner getting in your way, since spades can outbid all the other suits.