ACES ON BRIDGE

Today’s deal is another example of a deception designed to get partner to find the right path and leave the wrong one.

At rubber bridge, against three notrump, West had been put off attacking diamonds by South’s bid in the suit, so he tried to find his partner by leading the spade nine, covered by the 10, jack and ace.

Declarer now advanced the club king, and West won and pressed on with spades. However, South could duck this to East’s queen, and when declarer guessed to put in the diamond jack on East’s shift, he had nine tricks.

While South was congratulating himself on his nice play, East and West were trying to allocate responsibility for the debacle. East claimed that the opening lead was absurd, but West argued that he did not know who had the spade intermediates, and that his play could have worked on a different day. When they called for arbitration, the kibitzer pointed out a wrinkle in the defense. While the spade lead was unfortunate, East, who knew from his own intermediates that the spade suit was hopeless, should have put in the queen, not the jack, at trick one. West would now know to find the diamond shift when in with the club ace.

This same idea can occur when partner leads a fourth-highest card and you can tell that declarer has five or more cards in that suit. With ace-king-third or king-queenthird, you may want to persuade partner to abandon that suit by winning the first trick with the higher honor. ANSWER: You have the values for a two-notrump overcall, so do not be afraid to make one.The singleton heart is certainly slightly off-putting, but at least it is the ace. Three clubs would not define your hand nearly as well. No-trump overcalls above the one-level occasionally need to be shaded in terms of shape and strength.