ACES ON BRIDGE

South had too much for a preemptive four-heart opening. Instead, he started with one heart and jumped to three hearts over North’s game-forcing two clubs, setting hearts as trump. North cue-bid three spades and then came again with four diamonds over four clubs. At that point, South took a wild shot at six hearts, knowing his partner had a filler in each pointed suit. However, with nonsolid hearts, it is not even clear that the hand is worth more than a four-heart bid. (North can move on here because he does have the heart queen to solidify the trumps.)

Declarer played it much better than he bid it. He played low from dummy on the club-queen lead, ruffing in hand. Then he crossed to the heart queen to ruff a club high. When the club ace failed to appear, declarer drew trumps, shedding a club and a diamond from dummy as

East pitched diamonds.

Next, South led out the spade queen and spade jack, hoping to create an entry to the table. Had East taken the ace, declarer would have had his additional entry in the form of the spade king to ruff down the club ace and then cross to the diamond ace to cash the club king. As it was, East ducked twice.

Declarer was not done yet, though. He ran all of his trumps, reducing to two diamonds and the club king in dummy. East had to retain a spade guard and the club ace, so he bared the diamond king. A diamond to the ace felled his majesty, and declarer scored the queen for his slam-going trick.

ANSWER: You would not open four hearts on this hand, but now that East has opened the bidding, the emphasis switches from constructive to obstructive bidding. Overcall four hearts to take up as much room as possible. If the opponents raise to five clubs, will you double to suggest you had bid four hearts to make? I suppose I would.

“Machines do not have feelings. … This is not to say that no inanimate objects have feelings — toys are loaded with feelings, for instance, and only a monster would break the heart of a rag doll.”

— Judith Martin