BRIDGE with Bob Jones

Had North opened the bidding with two no-trump, as most Americans would, North-South would have arrived in a contract of three no-trump. There is no obvious way to develop a ninth trick in no-trump. This deal is from Australia, where they sometimes march to a different drummer. South had a terrible problem for his second bid. He had no spade stopper and no second suit, so he had to choose between supporting clubs with two small clubs or rebidding his four-card heart suit. Would the fourheart contract fare better than three no-trump?

There were only eight top tricks, and even a 3-3 split of the missing trumps would only provide a ninth trick. Declarer tried hard to imagine a lie of the cards that would allow him to take 10 tricks. He came up with one, albeit a long shot. West had to have exactly two hearts and no more than three clubs.

South won the opening diamond lead with dummy’s ace and led a heart to his ace, followed by the queen of hearts. He led a club to dummy and continued with two more high clubs, shedding a diamond from his hand. Dummy’s last club was ruffed with the three of hearts. South crossed back to dummy with the king of diamonds and ruffed dummy’s last diamond with the six of hearts. The cards lay as declarer had hoped and the king of trumps in dummy was the tenth trick. Nicely played!