ACES ON BRIDGE

“All men are liable to error; and most men are, in many points, by passion or interest, under temptation to it.”

— John Locke

Our review of the 2005 Bermuda Bowl continues now, and the Portuguese open team is up again, this time for an encounter with the Chinese Taipei team. After the normal start of one heart - one spade, Sofia Pessoa had to choose between a two-club and three-club rebid as North, and she went for the more aggressive option — one that would have been more attractive had she had a fit for spades.

Against three no-trump, J.Y.

Shih led the club four. In order to preserve an entry to hand, Jorge Castanheiro called for the queen. His next play was a diamond from dummy. Had it been the king, he would have made his contract easily enough; alas, it was not. He led a low diamond, won by West, who switched to a spade to dummy’s ace. Declarer continued with the diamond king, followed by another diamond to East’s ace. Patrick Huang now found the best play of the heart king, cutting declarer’s communications. Castanheiro could no longer score all his tricks in the minors; his goose was cooked, and he had to go one down.

In the closed room, a Precision auction saw North, Hsin-lung

Yang, become declarer, and East led the club nine. Declarer now was able to win cheaply in hand and preserve the club king on the board.

Nonetheless, even though he had four tricks in clubs, he still needed to make something out of the diamonds. When he advanced the diamond king, he was now in complete control, eventually recording plus 460 to win 11 IMPS.

ANSWER: You want to get off the bus, but two hearts is forcing, so you cannot pass yet — partner could have a powerhouse. Three clubs is artificial, and a preference to diamonds with a singleton would be unthinkable. So bid two no-trump, which many play as simply showing a bad hand. Even without this treatment, an invitational, non-forcing two-no-trump call would be the lesser of evils.