ACES ON BRIDGE

“O Vanity of vanities! How wayward the decrees of Fate are; How very weak the very wise, How very small the very great are!” — William Makepeace Thackeray

At the 2016 World Junior Championships, held in Salsomaggiore, Italy, this deal occurred during the quarterfinal match between Sweden and Norway.

Swedish twin brothers Mikael and Ola Rimstedt, who are rapidly making their way to becoming one of the world’s top young pairs, bid this hand to three no-trump. The one-diamond opener was natural and unbalanced; the two-no-trump call showed extras with long diamonds; the three-diamond call suggested a minimum hand with only four hearts. Against three no-trump, Christian Bakke led a low spade; this went to the eight, jack and ace. Now declarer led a spade to the 10 and took a losing diamond finesse, East’s two being upside-down count.

When Bakke won this, he decided declarer rated to be 3-6 in spades and diamonds. Obviously, the defenders needed to run hearts now, and the question was whether to play partner for ace-queen-third of hearts (when a low heart would let the defenders cash out easily), or queen-nine-third of hearts and the club ace — in which case, again, a low heart was necessary. But if declarer had a singleton honor, the heart king was necessary.

Bakke decided that with eight hearts and six clubs visible in the two hands, declarer was likely to have a singleton heart more often than a doubleton, so he shifted to the heart king to defeat the game. This was worth a 10-IMP pickup when three no-trump came home in the other room.

ANSWER: In this auction, a cuebid of two spades might sound like it is based on heart support, but in practice the call is very unlikely to have primary heart support. And since you might start with a double if playing support doubles, the cue-bid is likely in the first instance to be looking for a spade stopper.