ACES ON BRIDGE

As West, you lead the diamond queen against four spades, partner discouraging with the four. Declarer wins the ace, plays the spade ace-king, dropping your queen, and crosses to the spade jack, your partner following with the nine, six and 10.

Now the club queen is run around to your king as your partner plays the five, and declarer the seven. How do you plan the defense?

South has 18 points outside of hearts (the club ace, plus the top diamonds and spades). He must therefore hold either the heart king or queen. Your partner’s small club suggests an original three-card holding (he should play the six from a fourcard suit). Also, the fact that he did not play the spade 10 on the first round of trumps suggests he has the heart queen, not the king — given that his signal in trumps should be suit preference, not count.

So it cannot be right to switch to hearts, hoping that East holds the king. If declarer has four clubs, then he surely either has doubleton hearts or doubleton diamonds; to have any hope of beating the hand, you must play him for the latter.

So, exit passively with a club or diamond. Declarer will cash his minor-suit winners ending in dummy, then lead a heart from dummy, hoping the ace is right or that he can duck the trick to you. But provided your partner is awake, he will rise with the queen or 10 when a heart is led from dummy. The defenders will then score three heart tricks to defeat the game.

ANSWER: In these positions, it is always worth considering whether to reopen with a double when you are relatively short in the opponents’ suit. Here, your doubleton club king argues that partner does not have a penalty double of clubs, so he must be weak. Similarly, your shortness in spades suggests you don’t want to double and hear anyone bid spades. So I would pass.

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