ACES ON BRIDGE

“All we have gained then by our unbelief Is a life of doubt diversified by faith.” — Robert Browning When it comes to the critical decisions, you can safely rely on good opponents to have done the right thing thus far in the hand, as today’s deal shows. Your chances in four spades do not seem great on a low diamond lead, but when the diamond king holds the trick, things start looking up. Make a note not to trust West again — imagine underleading an ace at trick one! You draw two rounds of trumps, ending in hand, and lead a heart to the jack and king. Now East cashes a diamond and returns the heart 10, on which West unblocks the queen. You ruff the last heart, cross to dummy in spades and lead a low club, intending to put in the seven to endplay West. Naturally, East thwarts you by playing the nine, so you try the queen, losing to the king. West continues the accurate defense by returning his small club. What now — and why? The principle of restricted choice might argue for playing low: If East started with the club nine-eight, he might have played the eight rather than the nine, whereas from the jack-nine or jack-eight, he would have had no choice but to play the lower card. However, a much stronger argument is that East is a fine player who would have defended differently if he had begun with three low clubs. He would have shifted to a club sooner, to break up this endplay rather than playing a second heart as he did. Therefore, he must have the club jack — and your only chance to make the hand is to play low from dummy. ANSWER: Pass. You do not have enough for game and should not repeat your spades, which may land you in a 5-2 fit with queen-fifth facing a small doubleton. You have surplus values for one no-trump and have some length in each of the unbid suits. Let partner play one for a change!