The clue may be misleading

Outside a London nightclub, there was a poster proclaiming: “Six beautiful dancing girls! Five beautiful costumes!”

There is a bridge equivalent to this: the revealing pre-emptive bid. You have a two-way guess for a queen. If an opponent has opened with a highlevel pre-empt, the natural reaction is to play his partner for the queen. But sometimes you don’t need to guess; you can find out -- as in today’s deal.

Against four spades, West leads the heart king: four, ace, three. East returns the heart five: eight, 10, nine. Now West shifts to the club jack: queen, ace, seven. Back comes the club six, which South carefully ruffs high.

After drawing trumps, South has to find the diamond queen. A computer would know that with nine cards missing the queen, the a priori percentage play is to cash the ace and king. When the queen doesn’t drop, it complains about bad luck.

The automaton assumes that, because West pre-empted, East must have the diamond queen. It cashes dummy’s ace and leads the jack, preparing to finesse, but East’s discard puts paid to that plan.

The thoughtful player tries to get a complete count of the deal. After drawing trumps, he cashes dummy’s club king, discarding a diamond. When West fails to follow suit, South knows that West started with one spade, two clubs and at least six hearts, probably seven. This means he must have three or four diamonds.

Smilingly inwardly, South plays the diamond jack to his king, then runs the diamond nine when West plays low. The finesse is sure to win.