“In my time, the follies of the town crept slowly among us, but now they travel faster than a stagecoach.” – Oliver Goldsmith

Against six diamonds West obediently led a spade, and dummy’s ace won.

Declarer ruffed a spade to hand, drew trump in two rounds, and finished eliminating the spades.

At this point, when he cashed the three top hearts ending in dummy, East could form a very clear picture of the South hand, with precisely a 1-3-5-4 distribution. Since the auction had very strongly suggested that South must have the king and queen of clubs, there appeared to be no practical chance to defeat the contract, so East realized that he must resort to deception.

Accordingly, when South played a club from the dummy, East contributed the jack, thus giving declarer a losing option in the suit by trying to suggest he had the J-10 and not the ace.

Declarer duly put up the king, which held the trick, then crossed back to dummy with a trump and led a second club, with East following low impassively.

Declarer now had to decide where the club ace and 10 were. Had West ducked the club ace (a reasonable enough defense)?

Eventually declarer got it wrong and put in the nine, letting West score the 10 and return a club for one down.

At first glance, declarer’s play looks foolish, for who would play the jack of clubs from the J-10? But, if declarer’s clubs were A-Q-8-6, it would have been a necessary defense to prevent partner from being endplayed when South put in the eight.

Bid with the aces

South holds:

Answer: With this distribution, always rebid two clubs, not one no-trump.

Partner will expect a balanced hand for the no-trump rebid, so may end up in spades when no-trump would be better.

Sometimes he will miss out on a minor-suit fit, unaware of your extra shape. (However, with four hearts and three clubs in the same hand, rebidding one no-trump would be better than reversing into two hearts.)