THE BIDDING GIVES A PERFECT MAP

Mitch Hedberg, a comedian, said, “I wanna hang a map of the world in my house. Then I’m gonna put pins into all the locations that I’ve traveled to. But first, I’m gonna have to travel to the top two corners of the map so it won’t fall down.”

It is a well-known risk in bridge -- if you make a bid but do not buy the contract, you might have helped an opponent to make his contract.

This deal is a good example. How should South proceed in three no-trump after West leads the diamond queen?

East’s opening bid showed a respectable seven-card suit and some 6-10 high-card points. South, assuming his partner had some values, took a shot at three no-trump.

The opening lead made it plain that the spades were 7-0, and that East had not put a club among his spades! Even so, South still had only eight top tricks: one spade, one heart, two diamonds and four clubs. From where was a ninth winner coming?

The answer was spades, but only if declarer could first extract all of East’s cards in the other three suits.

South ducked the first trick, took the diamond continuation on the board and led a heart. When East played the queen, declarer ducked again. West overtook with his king and led a third diamond. However, declarer won with his ace, cashed the heart ace and ran the clubs, bringing everyone down to three cards. North, East and South all had spades. When dummy’s jack was led, East covered with the queen, and South played low from his hand to leave East endplayed.