ACES ON BRIDGE

“A vein of poetry exists in the hearts of all men.” — Thomas Carlyle

East’s three-diamond preempt gives South a problem. He has to double and then bid three spades over his partner’s three hearts. This call guarantees a strong hand, typically not a single-suiter. (With that, he would bid three spades or four spades directly.) Your hand may or may not have a second suit of clubs, and you might have three hearts. Either way, North has enough to raise.

East wins the first two diamond tricks and then shifts to a trump. South wins and plays another round, all following, before he eliminates the clubs.When East follows, declarer can reasonably play him as having a 2=2=6=3 shape.

Declarer must avoid a second heart loser and likely needs to find an endplay. South has two plays at his disposal, knowing West holds the length. He could either lead a low heart toward dummy, playing West for the king and queen, or lay down the ace first, effectively endplaying the defense when East holds a doubleton king or queen.

In terms of the odds, the heart ace and another heart is the best play, with six cases of two small in the East hand compared to eight of honor-doubleton. More to the point, rather than playing a trump, East surely would have switched to an initial small doubleton, to break up the endplay. A heart would be both natural and safe, while it would not be so from an honor doubleton.

Everything points toward leading the heart ace and another heart, and declarer duly takes that line. West can now choose either to go in with the heart king, crashing his partner’s queen, or to play low and see East endplayed.

ANSWER: You have great trick-taking power but poor intermediates. Yes, the good fivecard suit and good controls might justify upgrading to a two-no-trump opening. Opening one spade and then raising one no-trump to two may be a slight underbid, but your honor structure is more appropriate for a suit contract. If this is a part-score hand, you surely belong in spades, so I prefer a onespade opener.