Bridge

Michael J. Mosley and Nicholas Rossiter, in “The Human Face,” wrote, “Somebody once said that beauty is the passport to success, but it’s not a passport. It’s a visa, and it expires.”

That’s a tad depressing, but true. In bridge, if you need an entry to, say, the dummy but do not have one, sometimes you can give an opponent a visa to that hand and gain entry.

In today’s deal, first, what should South rebid?

That North hand is definitely worth an opening bid, but he felt uncomfortable on round two, forced to rebid in his five- card suit at the three-level.

It looks obvious for South to rebid three hearts, but what happens if North has insufficient support for the major and no club stopper? He might be forced to bid four diamonds. It is more practical for South to rebid three no-trump.

West leads his club, East taking the trick and returning a club to declarer’s king, West discarding a spade. What happens after that?

South starts with eight winners: two spades, three hearts, two diamonds and one club. Hoping for a 3-3 heart break can wait. Instead, declarer tries for 3-3 diamonds. He plays a diamond to the king and cashes the diamond ace, but West pitches another spade — gnash! All right, time for hearts. But East fails to follow suit on the second round. What now?

It is time to stamp West’s passport. Keep going with hearts, giving West his winners. But at trick 10 he must lead a spade away from his queen into South’s aceking-jack. Contract made.