ACES ON BRIDGE

The final of the 2022 Soloway Knockouts pitted the thrill-seeking Cope team against Street.

Both tables reached three no-trump after a third-seat one-club opening from East and an aggressive drive to game from North. Both West players led the diamond 10, declarer winning in dummy and then leading a heart to the king before running the clubs. When Kevin Rosenberg was declarer, Piotr Zatorski let go of two diamonds as West, so it was safe to bare the diamond king in dummy. Meanwhile, Ron Pachtmann had shed a spade as East. Declarer then exited with a heart. West took that and switched to a spade, East winning and returning the suit. Declarer thus made 10 tricks.

In the other room, Andrea Manno was declaring, and his West, Finn Kolesnik, defended strongly by keeping his diamonds, instead parting with three spades on the run of the clubs. Meanwhile, Ishmael Del’Monte preserved two diamonds himself in the East seat. This declarer had also bared the diamond king in dummy, but in this case that was fatal. West could win the heart exit and clear diamonds, with East poised to grab the spade ace and lead across to his partner’s winning diamonds. Thus, the game failed by a trick.

Manno would have done better to keep another diamond in dummy, discarding down to two hearts, two spades and two diamonds.Then he could duck the diamond continuation to cut the defensive link and eventually collect two more tricks in the ending.

ANSWER: Your values are about right for a raise to three spades, but the question is whether your extra shape is enough to justify a splinter jump to four diamonds (showing a raise to four spades with a singleton diamond). I think not, but it is close. If your spade jack were the queen (or your heart king were the ace) I would have no quarrel with that action.