ACES ON BRIDGE
“What is our innocence, What is our guilt? All are Naked, none is safe.” — Marianne Moore
Against three no-trump, West led a second-highest heart seven to the queen, king and ace. This trick indicated that East probably also had the heart 10, as he would have played low from king-third. It was only when East had king-eight doubleton that the heart 10 might be onside.
With only seven top winners, declarer needed at least one trick from the spades to go with a slow diamond trick. He wanted to keep West from gaining the lead for a heart continuation through dummy’s tenace, so declarer advanced the spade three from hand. West could not afford to grab his ace and fail to capture an honor. He played low, dummy’s jack forcing the king. East shifted to a diamond, to the jack and queen, and West could finally revert to hearts, leading the two-spot. Declarer now fatally inserted dummy’s nine, East winning the 10 and clearing the suit. West had the 13th heart to cash when he scored the spade ace.
In retrospect, South could have been fairly certain that the heart 10 was offside. He was playing for East to hold king-10fourth and hoped to cut him off from the long heart. Still, players tend to lead from length against no-trump contracts. Also, West had continued with the heart two. The lead of the low card might suggest an original four-card holding.
Had South risen with the jack, he would have blocked the suit. He would then knock out West’s spade ace, and the defense would have only one heart to take. South would run his clubs and score his ninth trick in either spades or diamonds.
ANSWER: You have the right hand type for a preemptive raise to three hearts if you have that in your armory. Otherwise, with no ruffing value and a queen (often well-suited to defense), I would take the low road here and only raise to two hearts. This may be enough to shut the opponents out if they do not have a spade fit.
If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, e-mail him at bobbywolff@mindspring.com. Copyright 2023, Distributed by Universal Uclick for UFS