ACES ON BRIDGE

In today’s deal, North does not have nearly enough to bid over a three-heart pre-empt to his right. He would likely not act even if he were in balancing seat. But when his partner shows spades, he can bid four hearts on his next turn to suggest a maximum pass with spade support. South is not interested in slam, of course, so four spades becomes the final contract. Before you read through the play, you might speculate how you can hold your club losers to one.

After the lead of the heart king, declarer must win the ace and now faces the possibility of four losers, even before he plays a trump and discovers the remarkably bad break. Paradoxically, though, he now has a real expectation that he can endplay West not once, but twice.

He must hope West began with specifically 3=7=2=1 shape. So he takes the diamond ace and king, then the club ace and spade ace. Now declarer must exit with the heart jack. (If he exited with a trump, West would win and exit with a low heart!)

West wins, cashes the spade queen, but then must play a heart. Declarer discards a club from dummy and a diamond from hand. A fourth round of hearts sees declarer throw a second club from dummy and ruff in hand. He takes the last three tricks on a crossruff, while losing two heart tricks. Who would have guessed that you could hold your club losers not just to one, but to zero?

ANSWER: The knee-jerk reaction here is to transfer to spades and offer a choice of games. That is simple but not best, in my opinion. With such weak spades and these values in your short suits, do you really want partner to play a 5-3 major suit fit? I think not. Use Stayman and rebid three no-trump if no spade fit comes to light.

“To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect.” — Oscar Wilde