Bridge

East encouraged with the heart seven as South continued with the five of clubs. East hopped with the queen and, hopefully, cashed the ace of hearts but then switched to the queen of spades. South won the ace, ran the club winners and followed with the queen of diamonds. However, he put up the ace when East followed with a spot-card to ensure success, N-S +600.

East's defense was predicated on the possibility that South held a doubleton king of hearts. He had hoped that partner had led the three from ten-fourth. The flaw in this reasoning is that West would have ventured three hearts as a pre-emptive jump raise holding four-card support and a weak hand. East should, therefore, shift to the queen of spades after winning the queen of clubs.

The good news is that this defense will be ineffective. Declarer will grab the ace and play a heart to establish a ninth winner. The defense cannot corral more than two spades, a heart and the queen of clubs. South was full measure for the advance to 3NT when partner rebid clubs at the threelevel over the heart raise.

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