Spaghetti junction drives to the table

Henny Youngman said, “How to drive a guy crazy: Send him a telegram and on the top put ‘page 2.’”

How to drive a driver crazy: Ask him to negotiate a spaghetti junction.

This deal is like one of those confusing intersections because there are several different possibilities.

Let’s start with the driver — the declarer. How should South play in four hearts after West leads the diamond queen?

Even though West has only 11 high-card points, his excellent six-card suit makes his hand well worth an opening bid. North has a textbook, if minimum, takeout double. Then, over East’s onespade response, South bids what he hopes he can make.

In this deal, both sides have chances to make winning plays. The declarer has three top losers: one spade and two hearts. So he is already under pressure. But he also has a third-round diamond loser and must be careful with his trumps.

If South wins the first trick and immediately plays a heart, West might win with his king and play a second round to his partner’s ace. Then it would surely be the work of a moment for East to lead his last heart and cause declarer’s car to skid off the road.

Before touching trumps, declarer must ruff his diamond six on the board and trump it with the heart jack. He cannot risk East’s overruffing with a low trump. Whether East discards or overruffs, South then has the green light to draw trumps as quickly as possible. He takes three hearts, two diamonds, four clubs and the diamond ruff.