ACES ON BRIDGE

“I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,

And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat and snicker,

And in short, I was afraid.”

— T.S. Eliot Today, we continue our theme of tackling the trump suit according to the context of the rest of the hand.

After North stretches to raise South’s three-spade rebid to game, West leads the heart jack. Now declarer’s task is to hold his pointed-suit losers to one. The problem is entries to dummy. South wants to take finesses in both spades and diamonds, but if he were to use the heart king to run the spade queen, West might win and stay off diamonds for the duration. Declarer would eventually have to tackle diamonds from his hand, and the game would fail. He could lead a low spade to the jack instead, but that would not pick up king-third onside immediately. If, when the jack held, declarer led the diamond queen out of hand as an entry-creating gambit, he might find that West had ducked the first spade holding the king.

It is best to play on diamonds before trumps. This way, declarer has a clear route back to dummy if the finesse loses. If it wins, he can afford a trump loser. Specifically, win the opening lead with the heart king and lead the diamond five to the queen. Declarer can easily ruff a diamond if this holds. If the finesse loses, he can get to dummy with the diamond jack to run the spade queen, still picking up king-doubleton or king-third onside. Running the diamond jack instead would compel declarer to ruff the third diamond. Then East would simply play low on the spade lead to ensure himself a trump trick.

ANSWER: A one-no-trump advance to an overcall should be somewhat constructive, around 8-11 points. Your partner might not have much more than a good spade suit for his bid. Lacking any intermediate cards, I would pass this hand. You can always back in later, after all. With the diamond queen instead of the jack, I might try one no-trump.