ACES ON BRIDGE

South chose a good time to try a lead inhibitor today, but West preferred to believe his own eyes.

Some Souths would ignore their clubs and respond two diamonds, but two clubs could have worked well. South wanted a red-suit lead, after all. North rebid two spades to show six, then raised the forcing two-no-trump call to game.

West put the club king on the table, and the sight of dummy made declarer realize time was not on his side. East’s two, standard count, let declarer visualize the 5-3 break. With no time to play on spades, he would need to run both red suits, and entries to dummy were at a premium.

Declarer decided to play East for the heart queen, as he was assumed to be shorter in clubs. Rather than releasing the heart king at trick two, he took a first-round finesse through East, forgoing the chance of a singleton queen with West to facilitate picking up a fourcard holding to his right.

A heart to the king was followed by a further heart finesse and the heart ace, West throwing two spades. Declarer then cashed the diamond ace and led another diamond to dummy’s queen, West dropping the jack. South now had to choose between the drop and the finesse.

The Principle of Restricted Choice could now be applied. West could have played either honor from a remaining diamond jack-10, making that holding half as likely. This meant a doubleton honor was his most likely holding. Declarer finessed the diamond nine and lived happily ever after.

ANSWER: You have a choice over partner’s game-forcing two-heart response. An immediate heart raise is fine, but I have a sneaking preference for repeating the spades and then introducing heart support later. Spades will play just fine facing a doubleton, whereas a 5-3 heart fit may have unexpected losers if trumps do not behave. Take away my spade spots, and I would raise hearts at once — it is very close.