Bridge
David Bird

How would you have played the contract on a club lead? There are 12 tricks on top and if trumps break 2-2 you can ruff a heart in dummy. If the ace and king of trumps reveal a 3-1 split, you can ruff a heart with dummy's queen, provided the hearts break 4-2. 

As you see from the diagram, attempting a heart ruff will end in defeat. Nevertheless, the contract was made at the table. Declarer cashed the spade ace at trick 2, then ruffed a spade. After two rounds of trumps he ruffed another spade, the queen falling from East. 

Declarer pla.ced West with 6 spades and three diamonds. Since he had led a club it was not possible for him to guard the heart suit. The scene was set for a classic double squeeze. Declarer cashed all his trumps, followed by the three top hearts.

West's last three cards were the spade king and two clubs. He had to throw a club to guard against the dummy's last spade. The spade was thrown from dummy and East now had to discard from the jack of hearts and two clubs. He too had to throw a club and dummy's K-5 of clubs scored the last two tricks.

Answer

A few years ago it would have been standard to make a take-out double on this type of hand. This often resulted in a 5-3 spade fit being missed, however. Nowadays, many players prefer to overcall 1S. If North competes to 2D and the next two players pass, you can compete with a second-round take-out double, having already shown five spades.

Awards: 1S - 10, Dble - 7, Pass - 3.

— Knight Features

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