ACES ON BRIDGE

The combat deepens. On, ye brave Who rush to glory or the grave!

— Thomas Campbell

The jury is still out on Bergen raises. The idea is to use a jump raise of a major as weak, with three clubs and three diamonds handling a limit raise and a slightly weaker hand, each with four trumps. I am still on the fence here, though I concede that they are useful for those who would prefer to substitute system for judgment. Faint praise, I admit!

Today’s auction sees a Bergen raise in action. In four spades, the heart lead clears up one concern for declarer. Even so, South cannot afford to draw trumps at once, because he is threatened with the loss of one trick in each suit.

Three of those losers are inevitable, but South can do something about the losing heart. He must go after clubs at once to establish a discard for his slow heart loser on dummy’s extra club.

There would be no hurry about this if the opponents had led clubs or diamonds, but the actual heart opening lead puts South under time pressure. He must finesse in clubs at once. When the finesse loses and a heart comes back, he wins and can take his discard at once. The rest is routine.

South would lose the race if he led a trump on the second trick. East would win and knock out South’s remaining heart winner. The club finesse would be too late; East would take the club king and cash a heart trick.

Note that if East smoothly ducks the club king, declarer had better not repeat the finesse, or he will regret his greed!

ANSWER: This is not an auction where partner is guaranteed to have heart length, but he is surely favored to have four cards in that suit. The choice of leads is really between the spade 10 and a low heart — I can’t see much argument for leading the heart jack when dummy is quite likely to have a doubleton honor. I vote for the heart. If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, email him at