ACES ON BRIDGE
My strength is as the strength of ten Because my heart is pure.
— Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Brian Callaghan of London plays regularly with his partner, Christine Duckworth, and he was declarer on this deal from last year’s Gold Coast Congress in Australia. Callaghan took his best chance in a delicate game here. Yes, he could have doubled four clubs for takeout, but that might have suggested more defense than this hand — and then he would not have been able to test his skill in four hearts, would he? The defenders led two top diamonds, on which East pitched a club. Perhaps West should have led a lower diamond to force his partner to ruff and create a trump promotion via the uppercut, but he did not. When East discarded, Callaghan ruffed the second diamond, drew trumps in three rounds and ducked a spade to West’s queen. West was worried that leading a third top diamond would squeeze his partner, so he played a club. Callaghan won in dummy, then led a spade. East naturally split his honors, but Callaghan ducked this trick. He could win the next club in dummy and take the spade finesse to make the rest of the tricks and bring home his game. At trick six, if West had indeed played a third top diamond, declarer would have had to ruff. Now he would go to dummy with a club and lead a spade from dummy. To defeat the game, East would have to duck — not so easy to do! That would give declarer one extra spade trick, but not two. ANSWER: If you were to bid three hearts now, it would be natural and non-forcing (this hand without the heart queen, perhaps). You have enough to go to game, with the options being to raise to three notrump, to bid four hearts or temporize with three clubs (normally a three-card suit) to try to extract a three-heart call from your partner. I’d go for the last of these, with the jump to four hearts as my second choice.