ACES ON BRIDGE

Everyone suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

Sometimes virtue is not rewarded and crime goes unpunished. In this deal from last year’s summer nationals in Atlanta, one could argue that the result was more humorous than tragic — but it does depend a little on which side of the table you were sitting.

Bobby Levin, West, gave the Daily Bulletin the following deal to see if its readers knew their textbook plays. You lead the spade seven against one no-trump, which goes to the king, ace and two. East now plays back the spade 10, which goes to South’s jack. Declarer leads the heart two to your three, dummy’s seven and the 10. Partner now plays the spade eight to dislodge declarer’s queen. What do you discard?

Levin could reconstruct the whole hand. South’s failure to raise hearts suggested he had a doubleton heart, and so East had the Q-J-10. Therefore, to create an entry to his partner’s hand, the right play was to jettison the heart ace. Now declarer could no longer establish hearts without letting East cash out that suit.

This was the right play but the wrong hand for this maneuver, as you will see when you look at the full diagram. After Bobby’s discard, declarer had no trouble in leading a heart to the king, dropping East’s queen and running hearts for plus 120 and all the matchpoints.

Still, at least Levin could be consoled that it got him into the newspaper — and thanks, Bobby, for being such a good sport as to report it!

ANSWER: You are way too good for a bid of three no-trump, and a case could be made for a simple bid of six clubs. But your partner might have stretched to get his clubs in without real extras, so start with a cuebid of three diamonds, planning to find a forcing club raise at your next turn one way or another.