Playing solo

“I’m getting too old to play this game alone,” one of my club’s seniors told me. “It’s hard enough to cope when I have a partner who will save me from making mistakes.”

My friend was today’s West. North opened one spade — some players would have tried 1NT — and when South responded 1NT, North raised to 2NT.

“That was a massive overbid,” West observed. “He must have added points for his opponents’ shortcomings on defense.”

South went on to 3NT, and my friend led the nine of hearts. Declarer played dummy’s jack, and East won with the queen and shifted to a club. South took the ace, led a spade to dummy’s king and continued with the queen. East followed with the three and six.

“I won,” West said, “and led the eight of hearts: king, ace. Declarer’s ten won the next heart and he took the rest. I know that a defender sometimes plays his partner for certain cards to have a chance to beat the contract; my partners play me for a crystal ball.”

In a practiced partnership, West might interpret East’s spade plays as suit preference, since for East to signal “count” couldn’t matter. So East’s low spades would suggest strength in diamonds; declarer was marked with club strength.

Still, East could save his partner without resorting to subtle signals. For example, East might win the first heart with the ace. He must assume that West has the ace of spades or a high club. When West gets in, he will see no future in a heart continuation and will switch to diamonds, letting East take three tricks there for down one.

North dealer