THE MECHANICS PLAY BRIDGE ALSO

Soon after writing the previous column, I was reading a “Peanuts” compendium. Lo and behold, there was another deal. Snoopy is flying back to the aerodrome in his Sopwith Camel. “He knows his faithful mechanics will jump up and down and cheer when they see him land.” Not quite — they are playing today’s deal. What should West lead against four spades? The North hand, with 10 highcard points, looks a tad strong for a single raise. However, with nine losers, it is a reasonable response. But when South makes a help-suit game-try, North must jump to four spades, especially with such good diamonds. (Yes, three no-trump would not face any turbulence, but that is a tough contract to reach.) After a black-suit lead from West, declarer might just draw trumps and, knowing that West has at least eight major-suit cards, play a diamond to dummy’s ace. He will have no more worries. A much more successful choice by West is the heart ace. When East follows with the jack, West, hoping that his partner’s card is a singleton, continues with the heart 10, a suit-preference signal for the higher-ranking of the other two side suits. East ruffs this trick and, as requested, returns a diamond. West trumps that, gives his partner another heart ruff and trumps the second diamond to take the contract down two. In the next cartoon, Snoopy gives his mechanics a dressing-down. Woodstock then asks something. Snoopy answers, “Well, with three kings, I’d have gone right to six spades.” That might have referred to yesterday’s deal.