ACES ON BRIDGE

East’s unusual two no-trump overcall had more to lose than to gain today. The opponents had exchanged plenty of information, so cramping the auction was unlikely to achieve much. Meanwhile, the overcall stood to pinpoint the play for declarer. The only upside was finding a sacrifice, but that might be a phantom sacrifice, or one that would cost more than the opponents’ game or slam, given how poor East’s suits were.

North took a shot at six spades, and West kicked off with the club ace, followed by a diamond to dummy. Declarer naturally started with a spade to the ace to reveal the 4-0 break, followed by a spade to the nine, then the spade queen. Now declarer had to get back to hand to draw the final trump. South tried the two top clubs, discarding a heart. Had the clubs stood up, he could have ruffed a heart to hand. Alas for him, West ruffed the third club.

Declarer might have surmised that West had only two clubs. First, East’s minors were so poor that she was likely to have extra shape for her overcall. Second, West had jumped to five diamonds rather than five clubs or four no-trump, either of which he might have tried with equal length in the minors.

If that were the case, declarer could have played to succeed by finding the heart king onside. The winning line is to overtake dummy’s diamond honor to draw the last trump and then play a heart to the queen. The third diamond disappears on dummy’s clubs.

ANSWER: I do not often downgrade, but my intermediates are poor and this diamond holding is not pulling its full weight. So I would open one no-trump if I had a fivecard minor instead of hearts here. As it is, the risk of missing a major-suit fit seems too high to do that here. I’d settle for a one-heart call.

Scenery is fine — but human nature is finer.

— John Keats