ACES ON BRIDGE

“It is undesirable to believe a proposition when there are no grounds whatsoever for supposing it true.”

— Bertrand Russell

East's lead-directing double of Stayman was ill-advised, as he could tolerate a lead of either minor, and one of the opponents was surely about to show spades. By doubling, East risked taking his partner off a natural diamond lead or leading an unsupported club ace.

South's natural two-spade call promised a club stopper. (Pass would have denied one.) North artificially set spades as trumps, then after a couple of cue-bids, South sportingly jumped to five spades to focus on the quality of North's trumps, all the side controls having been confirmed.

When West led clubs against the slam, it gave declarer a vital tempo. South won and drew two rounds of trumps. If they split, he planned to take out the last round, cross to the heart ace, then finesse the heart seven to allow for a West with four hearts.

However, when spades proved to be 4-1, declarer had to assume a favorable heart split. He saw that if he drew trumps then established hearts, he would end up a trick short. South had to ruff a club in dummy, but he had to set up hearts first, or the defenders might be able to win and cash a club.

He therefore ducked the first round of hearts, both to keep his communications open and to prevent a heart ruff. He could win the diamond shift (a heart continuation would have been no better), cash the club king and ruff a club. Then he unblocked dummy's high trump and returned to hand with the heart ace to draw trumps and run the hearts.

ANSWER: Pass and hope for the best. Partner could still hold as many as 11 points, in which case you might make a game, but if he has fewer, you should get out while you still can. To introduce a two-card minor would often land you in a 4-2 fit, while I'd hate to rebid that motheaten five-card heart suit. If you play forcing no-trump and partner was an unpassed hand, this would be an awkward conundrum.