ACES ON BRIDGE

“The truth is perilous never to the true, Nor knowledge to the wise; and to the fool, And to the false, error and truth alike, Error is worse than ignorance.”

— Philip Bailey

In three no-trump, declarer won the spade lead with the ace, East contributing a discouraging two, and started work on the clubs. The club 10 was run to West’s queen, and back came another spade. That was all the help declarer needed. He won with the spade queen and continued clubs. East won but could not scramble declarer’s communications. A heart shift would see declarer win in dummy, unblock in clubs and cross back in spades, while a third spade would be won and the clubs unblocked, after which dummy could be entered with the heart jack.

West should have switched to a diamond at trick three. It looked for all the world as though South held three clubs, based on the play so far. In that case, East had to hold at least four diamonds. A heart shift would require East to hold four extremely good hearts, but a diamond switch would not need nearly such a good holding. If West tabled the diamond 10, declarer would score the diamond queen, but that would be only his eighth trick, with the defense poised to run five. Given that West appeared to have the spade jack for his fourth-highest lead, it was most likely that East had the diamond ace-king to make up a vulnerable opening bid.

Declarer might thus reason to play to the club king on the first round, pocketing a club trick. When East won the second club, it would not help him to attack diamonds, because the diamond queen would constitute declarer’s ninth trick.

ANSWER: You might issue a negative double to bring both minors into the picture, but there is no guarantee that a suit contract will play better than no-trump. With your spade stoppers, the most likely game is three no-trump. Bid one no-trump. If your king were in one of the minors, you would probably go the other way.

If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, e-mail him at bobbywolff@mindspring.com. Copyright 2023, Distributed by Universal Uclick for UFS