ACES ON BRIDGE
Skill is a function of chance. It’s an intuitive best use of chance situations.
— Philip K. Dick
When South felt obligated to break his partner’s transfer by jumping to three hearts, North used the excuse of being vulnerable at teams to press on to game.
When West led the diamond queen, South saw that the mirror distribution meant he would need not only to find both major-suit kings onside, but also some sort of endplay for his 10th trick.
Placing all the top diamonds with West after the lead and East’s discouraging signal, declarer decided he would need to eliminate West’s black suits, then throw that player in with the diamond nine. But this would also require cutting the defenders’ communications in clubs.
If the club honors were split, declarer would need to convince East rather than West to take his club entry first. Deciding that leading the club jack from dummy might persuade East to duck his ace, for fear of solving a guess for South, declarer innocently played a low club out of hand at trick two. When West played low, East had to take his ace and could do no better than return a diamond.
Declarer won this, then led a spade to the queen, followed by a trump to the king and ace. South cashed the trump queen, then played a spade to the ace to extract West’s last safe exit card.
Finally, when declarer led a club to his queen and West’s king, that player could cash his diamond winner. However, he then had to lead a minor and let declarer discard a spade loser from one hand or the other.
ANSWER: You could have an eight-card heart fit, but even then, one no-trump might play reasonably. With such poor hearts, you should pass and hope partner can conjure seven tricks. You would not want to play in two hearts opposite a small doubleton.