ACES ON BRIDGE

“It’s discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.”

— Noel Coward

When North makes a simple spade raise, South cannot tell if game will have good play, but he must bid it anyway. You are likely to make four spades facing a maximum or the right minimum — or if the defenders don’t find the best lead. It pays to be aggressive here, giving away as little as possible in the process.

However, the combination of the duplication of shape and wasted values in dummy means South has his work cut out today to bring home the game. It looks right to duck the first diamond to disrupt the opponents’ communication. But South must win the next diamond, and then his best move is to lead a trump to dummy.

South’s cunning plan is to lead a low heart from dummy on the fourth trick, trying to build a heart trick for an eventual club discard.

This can be done if East has both top hearts, or if the top hearts are split so that West wins the first trick in that suit.

If South led the first heart from his own hand, West would allow East to win the first heart. The effect of leading the first heart from the dummy, instead of from hand, is to persuade East to play low. Indeed, only an idiot or a genius will rise with the king here, right?

When his ruse succeeds, declarer will eventually be able to lead the heart queen through East and ruff out the heart king. This establishes a home for the slow club loser, and South makes his contract.

ANSWER: You are faced with a set of ugly alternatives. A panel might vote for all the four minimum actions in clubs, diamonds, hearts and no-trump. The diamond honors persuade me to repeat the suit, even though it technically shows six. But I can easily see how bids in any of the other suits might work. A call of one no-trump, however, does not thrill me!