FOLLOW A CERTAINTY, IF YOU CAN FIND ONE

Michael Crichton said, “I am certain there is too much certainty in the world.”

Is that certainly true? Regardless of one’s opinion, at the bridge table, it is certainly desirable to play your cards so that success is a certainty.

Can you see the guaranteed line in this six-heart slam? What should South do after West leads a trump, and East follows suit?

Although North has only 13 high-card points, he gets two support points for his singleton. Hence his three-heart jump rebid. (He also has a five-and-a-half loser hand, which means it is between a three-heart and a four-heart rebid, but with such a low pointcount, it is right to prefer the lower bid.) South then bid what he thought he could make. (Yes, he might have gone slower because seven hearts could have been making. Give North king-queenjack-fifth of clubs, for example.)

South starts with 11 winners: one spade, six hearts, one diamond and three clubs. He needs to find clubs 3-3, which is against the odds, or to get a second spade trick. He does not have to guess spades; he can get a second trick with an elimination and endplay.

South draws the missing trump, cashes his diamond ace, then takes the top clubs. When East proves to have four, declarer ruffs the last club in his hand and returns to dummy with a trump. Then, say, he plays a spade to his seven.

Here, West wins with his jack, but is end- played. If he returns a spade, it is away from his king. Or if he leads a diamond, declarer ruffs in the dummy and sluffs his spade 10.