The bidding painted the perfect picture

Claude Monet said, “No one is an artist unless he carries his picture in his head before painting it, and is sure of his method and composition.”

No one is a bridge player unless he carries his plan pictured in his head before playing a card, and is confident of his line.

This was an interesting deal at Bridge Base Online that had lots of color choices. Two Norths played in three no-trump. A couple of pairs bid a slam without first dipping their brushes in the Blackwood pot. Three Norths were in four hearts, which failed after losing one club, one heart, a spade ruff by West and a club ruff by East. No North cleverly dropped the club king under the ace at trick one, but after a spade shift, a heart to East’s ace, and East’s lowest spade led for partner to ruff, if West had trusted that suitpreference signal and returned a club, the contract would have lost all of its color.

Three tables were in four spades. In this auction, North’s sequence showed two places to play, hearts and diamonds, but South preferred to repeat his excellent spade suit.

Two declarers misplayed and went down. The third used the bidding to guide his brush. What did he do?

South won the diamond lead on the board and drew all of the trumps, pitching a diamond and two hearts from the board. Then, knowing that clubs were 7-1 and that East had the heart ace, declarer played a club to dummy’s king, returned a heart to his jack and led another heart. He lost one heart and one club for the best score over all 14 tables.