Assume His ChoiceWas Restricted

Dave Barry, a humor columnist and author, wrote, “Although golf was originally restricted to wealthy, overweight Protestants, today it’s open to anybody who owns hideous clothing.”

That’s a tad harsh -- or was it just true when he wrote that some time ago? But one word in that sentence applies to this deal. South is in four spades. West leads the heart king and continues with the heart queen, which East overtakes with his ace. (East thought South had a doubleton because at trick twoWest would have led his low heart if he had had one.) What should South do if East either leads another heart or cashes the diamond ace before playing that third heart?

In the auction, East guessed well not to bid five hearts. North would have happily doubled and probably collected 500 for down two.

Suppose East immediately plays a third heart. South should make a loser-on-loser play, discarding his singleton diamond. East wins the trick, but declarer takes the rest.

East hopes that his side can take two hearts, one diamond and one spade. When trying for a trump promotion, cash all of your side-suit winners first. Here, East must take the diamond ace before playing another heart.

South must ruff high with the spade

WIN AT BRIDGE ace. Then, needing to draw trumps, he cashes the spade king: three, four, 10. What next?

Should declarer play a low spade to dummy’s nine or to the queen?

The Principle of Restricted Choice advises finessing dummy’s nine. If East had the spade jack and 10, he might have played the jack. But with the singleton 10, he had no choice. Assume that.