ACES ON BRIDGE

“Human life begins on the far side of despair.”

— Jean-Paul Sartre In this deal from the match between Turkey and Lithuania at the European Championships of 2014, Turkey overbid to an apparently hopeless game. Yalcin Atabey’s three-no-trump contract seemed to be doomed after West led a diamond, declarer inserting an honor from dummy. But East took his ace to shift to a low spade. (Yes, there would have been no story if East had continued diamonds.)

Atabey took advantage of the opportunity. He ran the spade shift to dummy’s jack and led the club eight to his queen, felling the 10. Declarer then played a heart to dummy’s jack — West correctly ducking — and ran the club nine, West throwing a diamond. When declarer led the club jack to his ace, West pitched one of his small spades.

Now Atabey simply played a spade himself while he still had a club entry to his hand, establishing a second spade trick and cutting the defense’s communications.

He could eventually force his ninth trick in hearts or diamonds. East-West had made three spades in the other room, which translated to 12 IMPs for Turkey.

Had West pitched a heart on the third club instead, declarer would have played on hearts for his eighth trick, eventually coming to a ninth in one of the pointed suits. If West had pitched a second diamond on the third club, declarer simply would have run the clubs. West could not retain two spades without weakening a red-suit holding, so the defenders’ communications again would have been cut.

ANSWER: I would pass. When deciding whether to balance over one no-trump, a 5-3-3-2 shape is not that attractive, though in the balancing seat you can take more liberties. Here, your lack of spot cards and the fact that no lead by partner will upset you argue against bidding. As a passed hand, you might act because partner is less likely to hang you if he has a fit for spades.