FROM ANDREWS MCMEEL UNIVERSAL
THE ACES ON BRIDGE by Barry Rigal
FOR RELEASE: WEDNESDAY, February 26, 2025

"Life is a copycat and can be bullied into following the master artist who bids it come to heel."  -- Heywood Broun

.....................
	Even if you favor passive opening leads, it makes sense to be more aggressive when declarer has preempted, implying weakness in the side suits. West's choice of a diamond against four hearts was sound: It needed less from partner to establish tricks than anything else.
	Declarer immediately took the top diamonds for a spade discard and then played the heart ace. West's king was a welcome sight, but the deal was not over yet. With the 3-1 heart split, declarer might struggle to ruff the fourth club if that suit lay unfavorably.
	So South ruffed a diamond to hand and then played a club, inserting the seven from dummy. He didn't want to stake everything on an immediate finesse of the queen. For example, East might hold king-six doubleton. This deep finesse also gave declarer the chance of reading the layout later on.
	East won with the club 10 and played on spades, declarer ruffing the second round. On the next club lead, West followed with the six. South assumed that East would have won the first round of clubs with the eight if he had it, so he placed that card on his left. If so, leading to the ace would pick up both king-10 and jack-10 doubleton offside. When the king appeared, declarer took the marked finesse in trumps to land his game.
	This is a subtle example of playing the card you are known to hold. West should have followed with the club eight on the second round, after which declarer would have no reason not to finesse the queen -- and go down.





	NORTH	02-26-A
SPADES 8 7 3
HEARTS A 8 5
DIAMONDS A K 9 3
CLUBS A Q 7

WEST		EAST
SPADES J 6 5 4		SPADES A Q 10 2
HEARTS K		HEARTS J 4 2
DIAMONDS Q 7 6 4		DIAMONDS J 8 5 2
CLUBS J 8 6 5		CLUBS K 10

	SOUTH
SPADES K 9
HEARTS Q 10 9 7 6 3
DIAMONDS 10
CLUBS 9 4 3 2

Vulnerable: North-South
Dealer: East

The bidding:
South	West	North	East
			Pass
2 HEARTS	Pass	4 HEARTS	All pass

Opening Lead: Diamond four





BID WITH THE ACES
02-26-B

South holds:

SPADES 8 7 3
HEARTS A 8 5
DIAMONDS A K 9 3
CLUBS A Q 7

South	West	North	East
1 NT	2 HEARTS	Dbl.	Pass
?

ANSWER: Partner's double is for takeout. Do not leave the double in just because you do not have a convenient rebid: Simply show your diamond suit. A call of two no-trump should probably be natural here, but ace-third is not the right holding for that. Partner has not promised invitational values; he may just be competing the part-score. With king-jack-third in hearts, you might bid two no-trump.

	(If you would like to contact Barry Rigal, email him at barryrigal@hotmail.com.)
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	(EDITORS: For editorial questions, contact Andrews McMeel Universal Editorial -uueditorial@amuniversal.com, Attn. Ryan Rice.)
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