In through a door for good defense

A sign spotted on a shop door read: “Push— if that doesn’twork, Pull. If that doesn’twork either, that’s becausewe are closed.”

If you are hoping to receive a ruff, you have to find an open door to partner’s hand, an entry.

This dealwas fun for East-West. How did the defense go against four spades afterWest led her singleton club? South described his handwell with the immediate jump to four spades— a strong eightcard suit and little else.

Declarerwon the first trick withdummy’s club jack, and East signaled with the nine, the highest being a suit-preference signal for hearts, the higher-ranking of the other two side suits.

South played a trump and, when East discarded, won with his ace and continued with the spade queen. Westwon with her king and shifted to the heart two, the lowcard guaranteeing an honor in the suit.

East, trusting his partner, won with the heart queen and led the club eight for partner to ruff. (West had to be void because with the queen-10 doubleton, she would have led the queen, not the 10.)

West knew that she could give her partner the lead with a heart to the ace. Then another clubwould promote the spade10 as a winner. However, it seemed that South had started with 8=2=1=2 distribution. If so, after a heart to the ace and a club, Southwould discard his diamond, making a loser-on-loser play. Anticipating this, West cashed the diamond ace before playing a second heart. Then the third club resulted in down three.