ACES ON BRIDGE

For fools rush in where angels fear to tread. — Alexander Pope

West’s heart sequence persuaded him to lead the 10 against the no-trump game, and on winning in dummy, declarer could count six top tricks. Two more would be available on a normal club split and another via the double diamond finesse. However, he saw he might need to knock out West’s late entry before the hearts were set up.

One option was to cross to the club king and run the diamond seven. Should that lose, declarer could duck the second heart, win the third and play a club to the eight, an avoidance play against West. But that would not work well if West had both club honors, or if he had a singleton.

Realizing that he could keep West off lead in diamonds if East had one of the honors, declarer started on the clubs, taking the percentage play of running dummy’s club 10. This line would lose to a singleton honor in West, but that seemed less likely than a small singleton or void. When the club 10 held, South led a club to the jack and king, West throwing a spade. With three club tricks in the bag, declarer switched to diamonds, leading the 10. Seeing West split his honors, declarer took the ace and continued with the diamond jack.

West could do no better than win the third diamond and play the heart king to pin the queen. To add insult to injury, South won, then took his club and diamond winners and threw West in with a heart to concede the last two tricks in spades.

ANSWER:

Raise to two spades at once.You can’t go wrong by limiting your hand and simultaneously supporting your partner. Not only might you end up in the wrong part-score if you rebid two diamonds, but you might also miss a game if partner has a distributional hand with five spades and no support for your suits. You may also get too high if you don’t put the brakes on sooner rather than later.