Bridge YOU CAN AFFORD ONE, NOT TWO

Bertrand Russell claimed: “There are two motives for reading a book: one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.”

There are two motives for reading the bridge column in a paper: one, that you may learn something from it; the other, that you paid for the whole paper, so read it all.

In today’s deal, how should South play in six spades after West leads the heart queen?

North’s two-club response was natural and game-forcing, so he might have rebid two no-trump. South’s four diamonds was a control-bid showing some interest in a slam. This was a tad optimistic, but with the singleton heart as a bonus, not totally unreasonable. (For serious two-overone players, when a major suit is agreed at the threelevel, play that an immediate control-bid shows serious slam interest. Instead, an artificial three no-trump announces mild slam interest, and a raise to game is slam negative. Here, South would bid three no-trump, not four diamonds.)

South can afford one trump loser, but not two. There is a natural reaction to start with a spade to the queen. Here, though, on the next round of trumps, declarer has a nasty guess — to finesse again or to put up his ace. (Mathematically, it is slightly better to try to drop the jack on the left.)

However, there is a much better plan. Start with the spade ace! If an honor drops, declarer is safe, and here can bring home an overtrick. But if South sees only low spades, he crosses to