ACES ON BRIDGE

Few bridge columnists have been held responsible for breaking up a partnership. But today’s deal from the Politiken may have helped in the process.

Consider four hearts here on a sneaky low spade lead — the lead Steve Weinstein found when Jaggy Shivdasani was declarer. Declarer put up dummy’s king to play a trump, and now Larry Cohen, East, won and continued with the spade jack. From trick one he was known to hold the queen, and he wanted to make sure West knew what was going on in the suit.

Weinstein overtook the jack and played a third spade. Declarer ruffed and crossed to a top diamond to lead a heart. When East showed out, Jaggy contributed the heart jack — prepared to concede the trick and to ruff the next spade in dummy, then claim the rest. However, Weinstein ducked his trump queen! Now declarer could cash the heart king and play on diamonds, but West was able to ruff the third and exit in spades. Declarer was left with a losing club for down one.

Had declarer played on diamonds without cashing the trump king, West would again have ruffed the third one to exit with the heart queen, leaving declarer with a losing club. So why did this story have repercussions? One other expert West reached this precise ending — but did not duck the trump queen. His hypercritical partner only discovered the error in the next morning’s daily bulletin. After a full, free and frank exchange of views, the partnership was never the same again.