AceS On briDge

“Is there no bright reversion in the sky,

For those who greatly think, or bravely die?”

— Alexander Pope

In the qualifying rounds of the 2017 NEC Trophy, Sartaj Hans of Australia had the opportunity for a nice play. He declared six clubs on the auction shown; this was an elegant sequence to get back to clubs after initially agreeing hearts.

After a top diamond lead, Hans won and drew trumps at once, seeing East discard a diamond and a heart, then took the heart finesse. When it lost and a heart came back, the bad break there came to light. Now the key issue was whether to play East or West for four spades. In a sense, the location of the spade queen was irrelevant to declarer’s play.

If West was the player with four spades, South could simply cash the remaining heart winners and ruff a heart to reach a five-card ending. If West held only three spades, they would ruff out. If he came down to the bare diamond king, declarer would cross to the spade king and ruff out that suit instead.

However, Hans decided that East’s failure to raise diamonds at his first turn suggested that he had only three diamonds. So West had six diamonds, three clubs and one heart, and thus only three spades.

Accordingly, it was East who was going to be the victim of a squeeze. Declarer won the second heart, played three rounds of spades ruffing in dummy, and trumped a second diamond in hand.

At this point, he led the last club from hand and caught East in a simple major-suit squeeze. Contract made.

ANSWER: There are two issues to consider here: First, is your hand worth a two-heart bid? Maybe, but you don’t want your partner to get carried away; he might play you for considerably more if you act now. Second, will you get a chance to bid again if you pass? The answer is surely yes; the opponents are not likely to get beyond two diamonds before your next turn to call. So pass now and back in next time.