ACES ON BRIDGE

I never guess. It is a shocking habit — destructive to the logical faculty. — Sherlock Holmes, in “The Sign of Four”

As South you compete to two spades and receive the club 10 lead, clearly top of a doubleton or a singleton. You have almost no chance if it is singleton, so assume West has led from two.

With three red-suit losers, your task is to bring the trumps in for two losers while avoiding a club ruff. Win with the club ace so you can lead a spade from dummy.You intend to play to the king and continue trumps, but East inserts the jack. Should you change your plan?

If East started with queen-jack-low, you are doomed. It is when he played from a holding of ace-jack or queen-jack that your play matters. In the former case, you must take the spade king and continue with a low spade. That play fails against queen-jack, though — West would win and continue clubs, East delivering the ruff when in on the second spade.

If East had five points in spades to go with his assumed club jack,

West would need all the remaining red-suit points to make up his vulnerable opening bid. Then, however, he might have led the diamond king from king-queen-low.

So place the spade ace on your left and duck the spade jack to prevent East from regaining the lead later. You win the next club and advance the spade king, pinning East’s queen. With the heart ace on your left, you will now be able to draw trumps and avoid the club ruff.

If East were to switch to diamonds at trick three, you would have to duck twice to cut the defensive communications, lest they promote West’s spade eight on the fourth round of diamonds.

ANSWER:

This is on the boundary between a call of two spades and a jump to three spades. The spade intermediates are good, but the doubtful value of the singleton king would persuade me to take the low road. You could also take an admittedly intellectual approach and invent a two-club call. I leave that to more polished bidders than me.