BRIDGE

To win, think the right thought

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, a Dutch biologist who died in 1723, said, “A man has always to be busy with his thoughts if anything is to be accomplished.” That is true at the bridge table for a man or a woman. If you do not think, you will make mistakes. If you do think, but have wrong thoughts, you will also err. The key is thinking the right thoughts at any given moment. For example, in today’s deal, how should East-West defeat three no-trump after West has led a fourth-highest club two? South’s two-heart rebid is called a reverse. It shows a strong opening, usually 17-20 high-card points, with four hearts and five or more diamonds. North rebid three diamonds because he now knew of an eight-card or better fit. His heart queen rated to be useful, and he did not have a club stopper for no-trump purposes. South, though, with a club stopper, proposed playing in three no-trump, and North had no reason to disagree. East must read the lead. Since the two is fourth-highest, West started with exactly four clubs. Since this means that South has three, his hand distribution is presumably 1=4=5=3. If so, East should shift at trick two to the spade king, which is necessary when declarer’s singleton is the queen. With the given layout, that’s exactly how the deal pans out. Declarer ducks a couple of spades, wins the third round with dummy’s ace and tries to run the diamonds. When they don’t break, he has to dislodge the club king to get out for down one.