ACES ON BRIDGE

“Brazil? He twirled a button Without a glance my way: But, madam, is there nothing else

That we can show today?” — Emily Dickinson

Gabriel Chagas is one of the few players to have won the three major world teams championships as well as the World Open Pairs. Forty years ago, he wrote a Bols bridge tip to alert players to the intra-finesse, using this hand to illustrate his point.

Against four spades, the defense begins with three rounds of hearts, South ruffing the third. The success of the game hinges on not losing more than one trump trick. Under normal circumstances, you would lead toward the queen after cashing the ace.

But here, East is known to hold the king, by virtue of his opening call of one no-trump.

There are two sensible lines of play that declarer should consider. The first is that East might have started with the doubleton spade king, in which case declarer can drive it out without wasting the queen. The other possibility is that West holds the doubleton 10 or jack, so an intra-finesse will be the winning move.

Start by leading a spade to the nine, which lets East win with the jack to return the club queen. Now declarer ruffs a club to hand and discovers that East also began with a doubleton club.

Although East might be 2-4-5-2 for his one no-trump opening bid, 3-4-4-2 is a far more likely shape. So, declarer leads a diamond to dummy’s ace and advances the spade queen. Since West’s 10 falls under the queen, whether East covers or not, declarer holds his trump losers to one and has succeeded in his task.

ANSWER: This hand comes down to the Law of Total Tricks. When you cue-bid two hearts, you showed a limit raise with at least three trumps. (Some pairs might have a way to show a limit raise with four trumps, but we do not.) You should assume your partner does not have enough to bid to three spades, and your balanced hand argues for defending, as you have only three trumps. So pass three hearts.