ACES ON BRIDGE

“A hat should be taken off when greeting a lady, and left off the rest of your life. Nothing looks more stupid than a hat.” — P.J. O’Rourke

This deal extends yesterday’s theme of conserving a slow stopper in a suit contract.

Playing a forcing no-trump response, an opener sometimes has to bid a minor on three (or even, rarely, two) cards in a weak no-trump. West might pass two clubs here, but when he shows a preference for two hearts, North doubles for takeout.

South now finds a sporting jump to three spades, and North gives it one more for the road. When West leads the heart 10, then by contrast to yesterday’s deal, declarer cannot afford to duck. The bidding marks West with a heart doubleton, so a heart continuation to East’s jack, followed by a further top heart, would probably set the contract. West could overruff declarer’s spade 10 and beat the contract by switching to a club. That extracts declarer’s late entry to hand and breaks up any pressure in the ending. East could give suit preference for clubs, playing his small heart at trick one and following the heart jack with a suit-preference heart king on the third round.

However, declarer can avoid all this by covering with the heart queen at trick one. This cannot lose (again, West is known to have a heart doubleton), but it may gain if West holds the heart nine, by blocking the suit. To stand any chance, East must win and continue with a top heart, but now declarer can simply discard on a low heart continuation or ruff high on a top heart play. In the latter case, he would later pitch his club on the heart eight.

ANSWER: Bidding is risky, but it has a big upside. If you play Michaels, a threespade call would show hearts and a minor — but you’d need a much better hand to do that. However, passing two spades would be feeble. I would bid three hearts. If doubled loudly for penalty, I might consider running to four clubs.