ACES ON BRIDGE

As South, you could upgrade to a two-no-trump opening, but without any supporting intermediates, you take the low road with one club. With a weak hand, your partner correctly bypasses his diamond suit over that, bringing his four-card major into the game instead. When East overcalls one spade, you jump to two notrump, and North gives you one more for the road, looking kindly upon his spade holding.

West leads the spade seven, and you can count six tricks on top, assuming the spade king is onside.You need only three more from the rounded suits, and the clubs alone might provide all those. However, you are short on entries to dummy.

Given that you cannot take two club finesses, you should settle for only one, while also picking up East’s spade king. For this reason, you must play the spade queen from dummy, dropping the jack from hand. You can then run the spade 10 and remain in dummy for a club play. If instead you were to call for the spade nine at the first trick, East could play low and then cover the spade queen on the next round to deny you the club finesse. You would have to tackle clubs from hand, and you would not know whether to lead low on the second round, felling the doubleton king, or advance the club queen to allow for a 3-3 break.

If the spade holds at trick two (East would be better off covering, to force you into a guess), you lead a club to the queen and cash the club ace. When the king falls, you drive out West’s club 10 and come to nine tricks at a canter.

ANSWER: I would take the high road and overcall three spades. The heart acequeen holding is as good as the ace-king on the bidding, and there is a big payoff for finding a spade fit that can outbid their hearts. If you pass, partner might struggle to act even with a good hand, holding lots of cards in the minors, and you might miss a game. In summary, the upsides of bidding outweigh the dangers.