ACES ON BRIDGE

“Enjoyment of the work consists in participation in the creative state of the artist.” — Martin Heidegger

The 2018 North American Bridge Championships in Hawaii were attended by many top players. Its main attraction is the Reisinger board-a-match, with Josef Blass’ team winning out in a close-fought contest.

This deal from the second final of the Blue Ribbon will appeal to those of you who like eccentric endings. East-west defeated three hearts on a spade ruff. Ah, but who got it? If you are a devotee of Sam Loyd puzzles, you might suspect that the answer is always the least likely suspect.

Against three hearts, Steve Robinson led the club queen, and Peter Boyd as East overtook to continue the suit. South ruffed and played the diamond queen, Boyd winning to return the suit. When declarer played the spade ace and another spade, Robinson pitching his remaining diamond, Boyd won his spade queen and returned a diamond. When South discarded, West could score his heart four and return a top club, Boyd having to pitch a diamond to keep the spades from being ruffed out. Declarer ruffed and led a spade, ruffed and overruffed. At this point, declarer had a lock for his contract. Because West could be counted out at 1=3=3=6 distribution, trumps had to be breaking. He could have crossed to the heart jack, ruffed a spade high, drawn trumps and claimed. Instead, declarer led a club and ruffed, Boyd discarding his last spade. Declarer could cash the heart ace, but at trick 12 he had to lead spades, and it was East who overruffed dummy’s heart six for the setting trick.

ANSWER: Lead the spade nine. Your goal is to get partner in to give you a diamond ruff, and the way to tip him off is to lead an unnatural card. In standard methods, the nine is typically led from shortness. As you have pre-empted in spades, partner should have little trouble reading this as a suit-preference signal for diamonds. If you had a void club, you would lead the spade two.