ACES ON BRIDGE

“Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,

Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?”

— T.S. Eliot

We end our week of deals from the 2014 European Team Championships with what turned out to be the pivotal board in deciding the top spot in the open section.

In both rooms, North opened three diamonds, but only the Monaco North-south ended in five diamonds. There were no problems in the play in that contract. Even on the spade king lead, declarer could unblock the heart king, cross to dummy in clubs and throw his losing spade on the heart ace before drawing trumps — plus 400.

The three-no-trump contract at the other table was a more exciting affair. Declarer took the club jack lead in hand and conceded a diamond to East’s queen. Tor Helness returned the spade king. Declarer won with the ace, unblocked the heart king and reached his hand with a club.

The moment of truth had arrived, as the fate of the contract depended on a heart guess. After the heart ace, should declarer play for an opponent to have started with queen-third or with 10-third? The penalty for guessing wrong would have been 10 IMPS, but South got it right by leading out the jack to pin the 10, and Israel earned a push. They beat the reigning European champions by just enough to take the gold medal.

Had West hit on a spade lead, declarer might have gone after diamonds first, which would have conceded a vital tempo.

ANSWER: Partner’s three diamond bid is artificial, a temporizing call. If he had primary heart support, six spades or a good diamond stopper, he would have bid naturally. You have strong three-card spade support and should show it by jumping to four spades. Even if it is a Moysian fit, it will probably be your best game. Meanwhile, this bid tells partner exactly what you have, in case he has a good hand.