ACES ON BRIDGE

Two men enter; one man leaves!

— George Miller and Terry Hayes

In the penultimate round of the 2016 European Championships, England and Italy met in a situation where only one of the two could qualify for the Bermuda Bowl. It was Italy who came out on top.

On this deal, when England reached six clubs, West put his fingers on the devastating heart lead. But when Italy played slam, declarer Lorenzo Lauria could win West’s spade lead with dummy’s ace and ruff a spade. Then he drew two rounds of trumps and eliminated the spades. He next ran the heart jack to East, who now had to find an exit.

When East made what seemed the natural move of exiting with a diamond, Lauria could win with the jack, lead a heart to dummy, and cash his two remaining clubs. On the last of these, East was squeezed in the red suits, and the slam came home.

Beautifully played, but East had the chance to do better. Can you see how?

East must win the heart and exit in spades, giving a ruff-sluff, rather than playing a diamond. This gives declarer an extra trick, but even though declarer can ruff in hand and pitch dummy’s losing heart, he cannot establish the hearts, for lack of entries to hand.

Should the defender be expected to find this? Yes, if he believes West has seven black-suit cards, since West’s low heart play on the first round of the suit reveals he must be 3-3 in the red-suits, given the bidding. This should not detract from Lauria’s impeccable play as declarer, though.

ANSWER: It might look as if you have settled in a safe spot, since your side seems to have more than half the deck here. But if you imagine partner with 4-4 in the red suits and nothing in spades, might the opponents be able to set up a lot of winners in the black suits? I’d guess that even in pairs, this hand might play a lot better in diamonds than in no-trump. So I would bid two diamonds.