ACES ON BRIDGE

Pamela Granovetter may not be a player known to a wide audience, but she is a true expert and a perfect partner. In the compact knockout event at the 2005 Fall Nationals in Denver, the very first deal she played in the event generated a nice point of declarer play. South’s three-club rebid was a big overbid; to my mind, it is better to bid two clubs and then act again over a sign-off. However, four hearts was the par contract. On a diamond lead and continuation, declarer simply loses two diamonds and a trump, ruffing one club in dummy and pitching two on dummy’s side winners (the spade ace and the good diamond jack). Granovetter (West) led a club, however. Declarer won and unblocked the spade ace, ruffed a club, then cashed the spade king to pitch a diamond from hand. Declarer next crossed to the heart ace and ruffed another club. At this point, declarer led a diamond from dummy, and you may now plan the defense.

East won with the ace and played a spade, ruffed with the heart eight and overruffed by Granovetter with the 10. A club return allowed East to ruff his partner’s winner and lead another spade, promoting the heart queen to the setting trick. In the seven-card ending described, declarer could have survived by ruffing the third round of spades with the heart king and exiting with a heart. Better (and far simpler) would have been for declarer to lead a spade, discarding the diamond queen! Now 10 tricks are almost assured.