BRIDGE

Do not be deaf to the bidding

Paul Simon, in “The Sounds of Silence,” wrote the line: “People hearing without listening.”

At a bridge table where bidding boxes are being used, that would have to be: “People seeing without listening.” A good bridge player, though, is never deaf to the auction: He interprets all of the calls, whether by his partner or the opponents, and puts the information to good use. In today’s deal, South was in three no-trump, and West led the heart eight. What should have happened after that?

South did not like to overcall one notrump with that heart holding. He was worried that partner might hold queendoubleton, which would have provided a second stopper if North were the declarer. But nothing would have more accurately described the nature and strength of South’s hand.

Declarer started with seven top tricks. Since only 12 high-card points were missing, the club finesse was bound to provide an eighth winner, but since the diamond finesse was doomed, from where would trick nine come?

South ducked the first trick and took the second to learn the heart break. Then he cashed his six black-suit tricks with the aid of the club finesse. East followed throughout in clubs and cleverly discarded the diamond jack(!) on the third spade. He was hoping declarer would believe that he had blanked the diamond king. However, South knew that 2-5-3-3 distribution was more likely than 2-5-2-4 and decided to let East get into the newspapers if he’d had the courage to pitch a diamond from a doubleton.

Declarer exited with his last heart. As he hoped, at trick 12, East had to lead away from the diamond king into dummy’s ace-queen.