ACES ON BRIDGE

“Nobody gets justice. People only get good luck or bad luck.” — Orson Welles

All the deals this week come from last year’s Spring North American Bridge Championships in Reno, Nevada, to mark the fact that this year’s event is currently taking place in Kansas City, Missouri.

Today’s deal cropped up in the last set of an early Vanderbilt Knockout match.

Three clubs might not seem like a healthy spot, but as declarer, you are not displeased to see the heart queen hit the table. When you try a club to the queen, to your surprise and pleasure, it holds the trick. Things are definitely looking up! What should you do after taking the heart ace to pitch a spade from dummy?

At the table, West covered declarer’s heart nine to force declarer to ruff in dummy. South then exited with the spade queen. West won, led a heart for his partner to ruff, and back came the diamond jack. Now the contract could no longer be made.

At trick four, it was necessary to take the diamond finesse, and only now should you exit with the spade queen. The defenders’ best play is to let West win and play a second trump, which you win, to duck a club.

When East wins, his best move is to play back a heart to the 10 and jack, ruffed in dummy. South cannot afford to ruff a club now, since West would be able to overruff and exit in spades. Instead, declarer leads another club and discards a spade on it.

East is endplayed, to set up either a club or a spade for declarer’s ninth trick.

ANSWER: Your partner has set up a game force, then showed a really good hand with spades. Your hand is far too good just to raise to four spades; a simple action is to jump to five spades, showing doubleton support and extras. Another option is to bid four hearts, a cue-bid in support of spades. You would certainly be prepared to give up in four spades, if partner expresses no interest on his next turn.