ACES ON BRIDGE

In an online quarterfinal for Britain’s Gold Cup, South played three no-trump and took the heart lead in dummy. He then misguessed by leading a low club to the queen, intending to finesse the club 10 later if necessary.

West won with the king and switched to the diamond queen, perhaps in an effort to unblock the suit. South won with the king and finessed the club 10 as planned. Now the spotlight turned to East, who made South’s life easy with the spade 10 return, covered by the jack, king and ace. Declarer then unblocked the heart ace, crossed back to the club ace, cashed the third heart and returned to his hand with a spade to score the long clubs. Had West played low on the first spade, declarer would have unblocked the club ace and come to the heart ace to cash the clubs.

East would have done better to return a heart, attacking declarer’s communications. As long as West ducked when South continued with the spade queen, he would be unable to get to his club winners. However, declarer could still succeed by unblocking in clubs, cashing the third heart and endplaying East with a diamond. East would have to lead a spade eventually, granting declarer access to his hand.

The legitimate way to defeat the contract after the first four tricks was for East to cash his diamonds before exiting in hearts. He could not then be used as a stepping-stone; despite having an extra diamond winner, declarer would have to go down.

ANSWER: In third seat, you might consider opening one club instead of one diamond so as to not suggest a bad lead to partner, but opposite an unpassed hand, I would just make the normal system bid and open one diamond; my longest suit. Whatever you decide to open, I can see the case for rebidding one no-trump over a major-suit response rather than passing.

“PRICE, n. Value, plus a reasonable sum for the wear and tear of conscience in demanding it.” — Ambrose Bierce