If you see the points, believe the figures

Richard Feynman, a Nobelist theoretical physicist, wrote, “There are 100,000,000,000 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it’s only a hundred billion. It’s less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.”

So, there are some six times more bridge deals than stars in our galaxy, but many of them can be played correctly by checking the 40 highcard points.

For our final deal this week, how should South play in four spades? West leads the heart king. East overtakes with his ace and returns the heart seven. West wins that trick and exits with a diamond.

North’s three-heart cue-bid showed spade support and at least gameinvitational values. South’s jump to game was aggressive, but he thought he would benefit from the auction, which proved correct.

South starts with three top losers: two hearts and one club. So, he must avoid a trump loser. Normally, that would involve taking the finesse. A priori, East will have the spade king 50 percent of the time, and West will have a singleton king only 13 percent of the time. But is that right here?

East’s pass on the first round of the auction denied 6 points. Then, when he produces the heart ace at trick one, declarer should realize that West is marked with the spade king. So, after winning the third trick, South should cash the spade ace and hope the king comes tumbling down.

When it does, partner should congratulate him.