ACES ON BRIDGE

“What makes a problem a problem is not that a large amount of search is required for its solution, but that a large amount would be required if a requisite level of intelligence were not applied.”

— Allen Newell and Herbert Simon

South’s inelegant (if practical) two no-trump opening saw North show four spades and longer hearts, but South insisted on notrump, which led to a challenging declarer-play problem for him.

Declarer won the club lead in dummy with the 10 and called for dummy’s spade king. When East let it hold, declarer started on diamonds, and the 5-1 break came as a huge blow.

Declarer now needed a third trick from the majors. He led the heart king from hand, but East was wide awake and, after winning the heart ace, returned the heart jack to kill the dummy.

He won the next spade, cashed the heart 10, West throwing a spade, and exited in diamonds. West let go of his last spade, and the defense had to come to two more tricks.

Once West had showed out on the second diamond, South should have dislodged the spade ace before touching hearts. East would win the second spade and would probably return a diamond, but declarer would be in the driver’s seat.

He would win and lay down the heart king, which East would have to duck, in order to prevent South from accessing dummy’s winning spade.

ANSWER: If you play forcing no-trump and constructive raises, you are allowed to make a simple raise to two hearts with a 10-count. But this hand feels too strong for that. It isn’t just the good trump and aces, it is also the side five-card suit and useful small doubleton. So treat this as a limit raise; bid a forcing no-trump, then jump to three hearts. If you don’t play forcing no-trump, maybe make a limit raise to three hearts.