ACES ON BRIDGE

Here is a might-have-been from the Philadelphia Nationals. The deal was reported anonymously to the Daily Bulletin, and it features an intriguing possibility.

As South, cover up the East and West cards. Your mundane partscore suddenly becomes interesting at trick two. West leads the spade two to the ace, and back comes the spade seven, ruffed with the heart three. West obediently follows his partner’s suit-preference signal in spades to cash the diamond king and play a second diamond to East’s ace. When the spade six comes through you, you ruff with the eight, and West throws a club. Over to you.

You need to hold your heart losers to one in order to make your contract. If West had both honors, he would certainly have over-ruffed, so you should play East for one or both honors.

One possibility is to cross to dummy via a club to the ace and run the heart queen.

Better, perhaps (assuming that East must surely have the heart jack), is to play a heart to the queen. If it loses to the king, you can cross to the club ace and finesse the heart 10.

This line looks safe against almost any normal lie of the cards, but, as you can see, it would not work today. If West refuses to over-ruff on the third round of spades with the jack, wouldn’t you say he deserves to beat the contract? Alas, West was only good enough to find the play in the bar after the event, not to make it at the table.

ANSWER: It feels right to bid two no-trump now. This lets your partner rebid clubs, or raise hearts with a doubleton, for example. A call of three diamonds by you would be the equivalent of fourth suit here, but when in doubt, the cheaper call is generally more efficient. Preference to three clubs on a doubleton should be a last resort.

“Magic trick: to make people disappear, ask them to fulfill their promises.”

— Mason Cooley