ACES ON BRIDGE

South’s 6-5 shape persuades him to open one diamond (one heart would be reasonable without the diamond queen), and he hears a takeout double on his left. North volunteers one spade, and South now reverses into two hearts. After North’s jump to three no-trump, you could argue for South passing. However, his playing strength looks better-suited to a trump contract, so he pushes on to four hearts.

West leads a club to his partner’s ace, and back comes the club eight. Declarer can place three or four clubs with West based on this lead, along with length in the majors. Diamonds may or may not be breaking, but the trumps could easily be splitting badly. If declarer ruffed the club continuation and then shifted to trumps, West might win and continue with top clubs, forcing South to ruff. The long diamonds would then fall by the wayside.

It is better for declarer to discard at trick two, bringing dummy’s 10 into play. West wins the jack and continues with the club king.

After ruffing, declarer has to be very careful. Leading a low trump toward the queen would not work. West would leap in with the king and play a fourth club, East ruffing to force another trump from South and give West trump control. Instead, declarer should play the heart ace and another heart, relieving East of his trumps. West may duck, whereupon declarer leads to his diamond 10 to knock out the heart king. He can win the return and overtake the diamond king to draw the last trump.

ANSWER: If you play nonleaping Michaels, whereby four of a minor shows five of that minor and five hearts, by all means overcall four diamonds. If not, you have to try four hearts, angling for the cheaper game. If your opponents double that, perhaps you will consider running to diamonds. By the way, over a four-spade opener, four no-trump would be any two-suiter.