ACES ON BRIDGE

“He had not yet learned that if you do one good deed your reward usually is to do another and harder and better one.”

— C.S. Lewis

Declarer survived taking an unnecessary risk in today’s deal. After West’s troublesome preempt, South took a shot at three no-trump, then insisted on a minor when North bid his hearts.

West’s seemingly risky lead from an interior sequence raised the specter of a bad trump split. West might have led a side-suit singleton, so unless West held precisely a 7=2=2=2 shape, he was likely to have a singleton trump. South persuaded himself to win the spade ace and cross to the heart ace to play a diamond to the nine! When this held, he cashed the top clubs and ruffed the fourth round in dummy. All that remained was to knock out the diamond king and claim 10 tricks.

With trumps splitting 4-1, declarer could afford to play on clubs before drawing the second round of trumps, thus guarding against East’s holding jack-fourth, but only if he could limit his trump losers to one with just a single finesse. However, he need not have taken the risk of finessing the diamond nine, a play that would have lost out to a singleton 10.

Having decided to play for the 4-1 trump break, the best line is a diamond to the queen, then the three top clubs. If they break, pitch the spade from dummy on the 13th club and lose just two trump tricks one way or another. If they don’t split, trump the losing club, followed by a heart ruff to hand. Declarer can then exit with the spade nine, forcing the defense to reduce his trumps once more. In the three-card ending, South can exit with a low diamond for a trump endplay.

ANSWER: Bid one no-trump. When contemplating two lowlevel actions, think how the auction might proceed and what message your partner might pick up. If you raise diamonds and West raises hearts, partner may overcompete in diamonds when holding short hearts. Your soft heart winners argue this is unlikely to be the right action. One no-trump tells your story.