ACES ON BRIDGE
Today’s deal is also from the China-Portugal match in the 2005 Bermuda Bowl. The diamond eight was led after an adventurous auction to four hearts. East won the queen and switched to the club king, hoping for a singleton queen from declarer. Declarer won with dummy’s ace, ruffed a club and played a diamond. East won and, perhaps in a hurry to score up, played a third club rather than the essential trump.
South ruffed the club, ruffed a diamond (West pitching a spade), cashed the top spades and played another spade. At this point the winning play is to ruff with the heart six. When West cannot overruff, you are home. At the table, though, declarer ruffed in with the heart eight. She continued with a diamond ruff and a spade, but East trumped in with the seven to extract an honor from declarer. South was now forced to concede a second trump loser, for down one.
Declarer did have to worry about East having begun with the doubleton K-10 of hearts, which brings us to the point of the deal. Once East has not switched to a trump at trick five, declarer needs to find spades 3-3. She must play three rounds of spades, ruffing, and only then trump a diamond with the nine and play a fourth round of spades. Whatever East plays, declarer ruffs it with a heart honor, then ruffs a diamond with the heart ace.
Now she plays a spade to score her remaining trump honor for her 10th trick. She scores three three black winners, two diamond ruffs in dummy and five trumps in hand.
ANSWER: Bid four hearts. Forget about playing in spades; yes, you could have a ninecard fit there, but why bother looking for that when four hearts should play like a dream? You have decent heart support and plenty of quick tricks, and you can reasonably hope that your partner will be able to establish your spades for discards. To bid three spades, natural and forcing, might land you in the wrong game.
If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, email him at
bobbywolff@mindspring.com