ACES ON BRIDGE

— Miguel de Unamuno As West in today’s deal, you cannot enter with a takeout double of three spades on your off-shape minimum. You lead the heart nine against four spades, unwilling to attack from either of your minor-suit top cards. Declarer reads your lead as being from weakness and rises with the ace as your partner encourages with the jack, playing standard signals. Then comes a club to the seven and queen. Before you play to this trick, consider the defense.

Your partner would have played the two from seven-six-two, so declarer has at least one more club. You can see three tricks for the defense, but it is unlikely that you have a second trump trick. Declarer did open three spades at unfavorable vulnerability, after all.

With the diamond king onside, all seems lost, but declarer cannot see through the backs of the cards.

South is intent on taking quick discards on dummy’s clubs; otherwise, he would have drawn trumps. You can encourage him along these lines by winning the club ace and shifting to the diamond eight at trick three. Surely declarer will rise with the ace rather than risking a losing finesse, intending to throw a red-suit loser on the third club.

However, after declarer does that, your partner ruffs the third club. South now has no chance of avoiding a loser in each suit.

Note that it would not do to cash East’s heart king before shifting to diamonds, as he could not attack that suit himself, while a trump shift would remove your control card.

ANSWER: Opening one no-trump gets your hand off your chest but is anti-positional and possibly an underbid. Yes, opening one diamond followed by two clubs could cause you to miss a game, while a jump rebid of three clubs would force your side to game. However, if partner passes your two-club rebid, who is to say you are not in the right spot? If partner doesn’t pass, you can bid on and show your extras.