ACES ON BRIDGE

But I, being poor, have only my dreams, I have spread my dreams under your feet;Tread softly because you tread on my dreams. — W.B. Yeats

When East overcalled one spade over one heart, South could easily have passed rather than bidding one no-trump. (Too much of his hand was tied up in spades, in my opinion.) South denied three hearts by his action — with three hearts, he would have made a support double of the overcall.

West led the spade seven, top of his doubleton, against three no-trump, and when East overtook with his eight, declarer saw little point in ducking. He won and played the heart queen, then continued with hearts when East ducked. East took the second round and continued with the spade queen. Again, declarer declined to duck, continuing with a club to the ace to cash dummy’s heart winners,

throwing hand, pitched Declarer while a diamonds low had East diamond. planned also from to try to concede a club to West while keeping East off lead. But when East threw a spade on the second club, declarer rose with the ace and exited with a spade. East could take his three spade winners, but then had to lead away from the diamond king and concede the ninth trick.

Declarer would have been unable to make his contract on the layout seen here if he had let East win either the first or second round of spades. Had he done so, he would been unable to endplay East and would then have had to rely on a finesse in diamonds to make a ninth trick — which would have been unsuccessful as the cards were divided.

ANSWER: It isn’t clear whether you belong in diamonds or three no-trump, but you don’t really have any slam ambitions yet. Bid three clubs to show where you live and let partner help you decide what strain to end up in. When in doubt, it is always better to let partner tell you what he has, rather than deciding for him.

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