ACES ON BRIDGE

“We know nothing of tomorrow; our business is to be good and happy today.”

— Sydney Smith

Our final deal on fit bids shows one of the most common varieties. After West’s intervention, North’s jump in a new suit by agreement shows diamonds and spade support. East competes over four spades to five clubs, and South takes the push to five spades. West doubles with his top cards in all the side suits, and now he must decide on an opening lead.

West can see declarer’s potential for establishing dummy’s suit. He must not delay in taking his own tricks by leading a trump. Laying down the diamond ace at trick one might be right, expecting shortness opposite, but that could end up looking foolish. Instead, West leads the heart king, asking for count.

East should do more than just give count; he might get a club shift in that case. He should flag his diamond void by dropping the heart queen. With the jack in dummy, this cannot be a natural signal of any kind. West deduces that his partner has a void in diamonds (East would not make an alarm clock signal with one diamond), so he shifts to a low diamond to keep control of the suit. East ruffs and returns a club, assuming that West has four hearts for his double of one spade. That establishes a club for the defense when West gains the lead with the diamond ace. The undertrick is important, as five hearts was making.

Had West led a low diamond at the outset, followed by a heart for a further diamond ruff and a club shift, he would have collected 800, but that is just too tough to find, and 500 is a fine result.

ANSWER: If your partner can take care of the club suit, you might be in a position to take your opponents to the cleaners. Redouble to show values and suggest penalizing the opponents. If partner cannot double two clubs, you will probably wind up in two hearts.