ACES ON BRIDGE

“Don’t ever become a pessimist. … A pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun, and neither can stop the march of events.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

This was my final deal from the 2000 Cavendish Invitational, played in the teams event.

My partner Seymon Deutsch was never a pessimist, and this deal required me to justify his rose-colored spectacles.

I received a club lead to the six and eight, which I won in hand to advance the spade jack, covered all around. Now a spade back to the king allowed the defense to exit with a third spade.That let me duck a club to East, who returned a heart to the 10 and king.

Now I cashed the club ace and the fourth club, both defenders pitching diamonds. I then came to hand with the fourth spade. On this trick, West reduced to doubletons in each red suit, and East was squeezed.

If he came down to two hearts and two diamonds,

I would have exited with a heart and collected two diamonds in the end. So,

East bared his diamond jack, and that let me lead the diamond queen out of my hand to pin the jack and collect two diamond tricks, to make the contract.

As an aside, on the early heart shift, should West have found the line of taking the ace and returning the suit? That breaks up the endplay: If South wins the fourth spade in hand, he has no heart to exit with, and if he is wins the fourth spade in dummy, East can safely come down to just one diamond, since there are no entries to South for the diamond pin.

At the other table, two spades collected plus 140, so this led to a decent pickup rather than a loss for the Deutsch team.

ANSWER: Your hand, with all its controls and a filler in partner’s suit, is very appropriate for play in diamonds. Raise to four diamonds, setting the suit for slam.You will not let your partner out before the six-level, but with this hand, you would rather answer controls than ask.