ACES ON BRIDGE

“Do not speak of your happiness to one less fortunate than yourself.” — Plutarch

My wife, Judy, was previously married to the late Norman Kay, one of the strongest players never to win a world title. He declared this deal, from the semi-finals of the 1968 Olympiad.

Norman was always a deliberate player, and when West led the spade jack, he took considerable time before committing himself. Eventually he won, tested the hearts and, when they broke 3-3, took the diamond finesse for an overtrick.

Was his line of play the best? It fails when hearts are 4-2 with the diamond finesse wrong. In contrast, playing on diamonds first might work if that suit divides evenly. But if the diamond ace is followed by a diamond to the queen, which is allowed to win, does declarer now risk a third diamond, or does he try the hearts?

Once you have identified the problem, maybe you can spot the best play for declarer. This would have been to try a low diamond toward the queen before releasing the ace. If the queen wins, you are still in control in the diamond suit and can even cope with a bad heart break by coming to hand in spades and leading a low heart to the 10. This loses only to the bare heart jack in East. And of course, if the diamond queen loses to the king, there is still time to test both red suits.

So was the U.S. team lucky here? Not exactly; in the other room, the Dutch declarer was in seven no-trump — which simply needed hearts to be 3-3 and the diamond finesse to work.

ANSWER: This redouble is for takeout — your partner would sit back and let you enjoy yourself in one diamond doubled if he were happy to play there. You should expect him to have short diamonds and both majors, so you should bid one spade. In this context, the hand is quite suitable for play there.