ACES ON BRIDGE

“It is sometimes a bit of a shock to be reminded that, in operational and practical fact, the medium is the message.” -- Marshall McLuhan

Today’s deal comes from “Tips on Cardplay,” the third of three recent books by Mike Lawrence. The book includes a dozen important topics, and today’s theme is one that all intermediate players should take to heart: Every card means something.

Against three no-trump, West led the heart five to East’s ace. East returned the heart two to South’s 10 and West’s jack. West, knowing East had four hearts (else he would have returned the top of his remaining doubleton), continued with the king, dropping South’s queen, and cashed the heart nine.

West could now exit with the spade eight. When declarer ran his spades, West needed to find two discards. What should they be? With the sight of all four hands, we know West can’t discard a club today. But from West’s perspective, if declarer had the diamond queen and not the club king, a diamond discard would be absolutely fatal.

The answer to this dilemma comes if West and East signal helpfully, rather than playing their cards at random. On the first two spade leads, East must follow with the spade 10, then nine. West now knows East has a stopper in the higher-ranking remaining suit, diamonds. If East has a diamond trick, it will be safe for West to discard diamonds and defeat the game.

Since both defenders know that East’s spade cards are irrelevant for trick-taking, the only useful message for them to carry is suit preference. That principle might also apply to East’s play on the third and fourth rounds of hearts.

ANSWER: The disadvantages of bidding one spade here are illusory. If partner passes, what game are you likely to miss, since most hands with scattered values and four spades will raise to two here? With all your values concentrated in two suits, this doesn’t feel like a hand where you need to commit to no-trump yet. A jump to two spades would be game-forcing; you’d need a fifth diamond to make that call.