ACES ON BRIDGE

“I think a lie with a purpose is one of the worst kind and the most profitable.” — Finley Peter Dunne

Declarer found a small extra chance to land his contract here. West’s jump raise had had the effect of speeding up the auction. When North stretched to compete to three spades, East gave it one more for the road, but South was going to raise again, anyway.

East won the heart lead and switched to the diamond eight. This suggested to declarer that the diamond queen was offside. In any case, declarer had nothing to lose by trying to establish a club trick before committing himself in diamonds.

In abstract, the best play would have been to lead toward the club jack, succeeding not only when East held both missing club honors, but also when East had one honor in a short holding of three cards or fewer. However, South could not afford this luxury, for want of entries. East was unlikely to hold both top clubs; he might have cashed one at trick two, perhaps angling for a ruff.

Declarer therefore led the club jack out of his hand. West put the king on, fatally. Declarer won the trump shift in hand and ducked a club. Still backing his read of the diamond eight, South rose with the king on East’s diamond continuation and then crossed to a trump to ruff a club. When the ace appeared, declarer could ruff a heart across to throw his diamond nine on the club queen.

West needed to allow East to win the first club and continue diamonds while West still had the club king as an entry to the diamond queen. This defense could have been found at the table. Even though it lets declarer arrange a discard, the discard comes too late for him.

ANSWER: Facing a passed partner, preemptive overcalls are more wide-ranging. Your side will probably not bid a game unless your partner can support hearts, so jump to two hearts, taking up some valuable bidding space. A good litmus test is to consider whether you would bid game facing a cue-bid raise. If so, overcall at the one-level. If not, jump to the two-level.