Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
ACES ON BRIDGE
Our themed deals this week all feature tackling suits where we are missing both the queen and the jack. Often the subsidiary cards influence our line of attack, and today’s deal is no exception.
Bringing home three no-trump after the lead of an interior club won’t be easy; we need to overcome not one but two hurdles. The first essential move is to duck the initial club lead. There is no shift we are particularly afraid of, but if clubs are 5-2 (as they are here), we may find we need to cut the defenders’ communications with a duck on the first round.
Winning the club continuation in hand, we then need to consider which major suit to go after, and the decision is pretty close. In favor of playing on hearts is the presence of better intermediates. But (and it is a big but) we need to exploit those intermediates to the fullest by leading to the heart nine. This succeeds not only against any 3-3 break, but also whenever West has both heart honors, and critically when he has a doubleton heart honor.
Today, East will win his heart honor, but has no third club to lead. The best he can do is shift to a high diamond, to the 10 and ace. In due course, we can unblock hearts, come back to hand in spades, and run the hearts. That brings us to four hearts, one diamond and two tricks in each of the black suits, nine in all.
Notice that playing the king of hearts, then the nine, will see us lose two heart tricks.
BID WITH THE ACES
ANSWER: Your partner is virtually certain to have four spades and longer clubs. (With a balanced hand, he would bid one notrump; with three diamonds, he would surely double one heart for takeout.) So don’t panic: Revert to two clubs, giving partner preference back to his first suit.