ACES ON BRIDGE

“For when the One Great Scorer comes To write against your name, He marks — not that you won or lost — But how you played the game.”

— Grantland Rice Here is another deal that was nominated for the 2020 IBPA defense award.

When Steve Weinstein opened three diamonds, David Gold doubled. Bobby Levin upped the ante, and David Bakhshi made an aggressive responsive double, knowing that his singleton club and major-suit kings would be useful. So NorthSouth had no trouble reaching the heart game, a contract that was made whenever it was bid across all four competitions at the 2019 World Team Championships — except at this table, that is.

Levin gauged from the bidding that his opponents both had length in spades. He therefore led the spade ace and continued with the spade nine, suit preference for diamonds! Weinstein ruffed and switched to a low diamond, specifically the nine as a suit-preference signal for spades, showing another trump. Levin won the diamond jack and played a third spade to defeat the game. That defense required great partnership trust and cooperation.

At the other table, the English pair had a bidding misunderstanding and ended in five clubs doubled for -1100. Thus, the USA1 team picked up 15 international match points with this deal, on its way to a quarterfinal victory.

At most other tables where four hearts was played, North was declarer and East led a top diamond, effectively destroying the second entry to the East hand.

Benito Garozzo made the point that leading your singleton whenever it was a sensible option had a lot going for it; this deal is strong supporting evidence.

ANSWER: You just about have the values to respond here, and a negative double gets both your suits across. It does not promise any support for clubs, merely four cards in each major. While this might backfire if your partner has extras in a club one-suiter, you should cross that bridge when you come to it.

If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, email him at bobbywolff@mindspring.com