ACES ON BRIDGE

“The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution.” — Bertrand Russell

This deal proved too tough for all five declarers in the final of the English Bridge Union’s international mixed trials.

If East had not produced a wild fourheart call, South might have passed three spades. Still, East dodged the ignominy of generating a game bonus against himself when declarer failed to exploit the information available to him.

East took two heart tricks and then switched to the club 10. Upon winning the club ace, declarer simply finessed the spade queen, losing to the bare king, and had to go one down.

If declarer intended to play West for the spade king, he might have started with the spade jack, planning to run the spade nine next in an attempt to pick off king-10-low onside. East had bid four hearts with nothing, so he surely had

plenty of shape, likely including short spades.

That inference would be enough to swing the odds away from the a priori best play of leading a spade to the queen.

However, declarer should not have played on spades at all. Instead, he should have led a low diamond to the queen first, hoping to smoke out the ace. When the diamond queen held, declarer could place the diamond ace on his left and the spade king on his right — what else could East have for his bidding? Declarer would not take a trump finesse at all in that case. He would cash the ace and score up his game.

If East were to win with the diamond ace and continue clubs, declarer would finesse the club jack and advance the spade jack, using the diamond king for his reentry.

ANSWER: You were intending to jump to three spades if partner had introduced a new suit at his second turn. Now that he has shown six spades, your hand is worth a game bid. You would make a simple raise on only a spade doubleton, but your support is much better than that (and partner’s trumps may make him leery of accepting a game try). So bid four spades.

If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, email him at bobbywolff@mindspring.com