ACES ON BRIDGE

“People under pressure don’t work better; they just work faster.”

— Tom DeMarco

When South plays six no-trump, West leads the heart queen. East discards a spade, and you win with the king. You have 11 top tricks and will need either 3-3 spades or some form of pressure; you need either a squeeze in hearts and a second suit against West or, more likely, a spade-diamond squeeze against East.

First, cash the clubs, discarding a diamond from the board. When both defenders follow to three clubs, West has revealed 10 cards in hearts and clubs, so no squeeze will be possible on him. You must therefore hope that East holds the sole guard in both spades and diamonds. You need to maximize the amount of pressure you can bring to bear on East. How may this be done?

The answer is to play the spade ace and king, West pitching a heart, then lead the heart seven and duck West’s eight. By surrendering a trick now, you will extract one more card from the East hand.

West can do no better than return a heart, but this has the effect of squeezing East, since after nine tricks have been played in hearts, clubs and spades, dummy is down to two diamonds and the doubleton spade queen, while you have three diamonds and a spade in hand. East can see he must keep spades, so he will pitch a diamond, and you can take the spade queen then cash all three of your diamonds for 12 tricks.

By surrendering the trick you have to lose, you extract a spare card from the defenders, which makes it much easier to execute a possible squeeze.

ANSWER:

You are torn between your desire to get out of hearts and your lack of values, suggesting that you should not encourage your partner to go any higher. With a minor club honor, I might risk two no-trump; as it is, I think passing is the safer approach.