Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
ACES ON BRIDGE
“I have always been fond of the West African proverb ‘Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.’”
— Theodore Roosevelt
As East, defending against four spades on the club nine lead, you take the first two tricks, partner producing the four. If declarer is 5=5=1=2, the contract is surely going down on normal defense. If South is 6=5=0=2, you must focus on how to prevent the hearts from being established.
It is best to force declarer to ruff, so shift to a diamond. Declarer will surely ruff and cash the spade ace as you shed a club. Next comes a spade to the nine, followed by the spade king as you pitch minor-suit cards. Now declarer calls for the heart 10.
Remarkably, you must refrain from covering this card! If you do cover, declarer will win, draw the final trump and cross to the heart ace to lead back toward the heart nine. However, by playing low, you give him a fatal dilemma:
Ruff a diamond and lose control along with the long heart, or continue hearts and suffer a ruff. Even if partner holds the singleton heart nine, the game will still go down.
Paradoxically, if declarer had led a low heart from dummy instead of the 10, you would have to split your honors to succeed! After declarer wins and draws trumps, he can cross to the heart ace and lead the heart 10, but you can duck to leave declarer without recourse.
With open cards, declarer could discard on the diamond shift and then set up a discard on the fifth round of diamonds. Technically, he could also succeed by finessing the spade nine on the first round of the suit. He could then draw all the trumps and play a heart to the 10.
ANSWER: This is a marginal opening bid. With the diamond 10, it would be clear to act when non-vulnerable. The attraction of opening is that you do have a decent diamond suit you would be happy for partner to lead, and you can raise either major happily enough with three decent trumps and a ruffing value. If that is your style, you need for responder subsequently to be able to clarify your range and trump length.