NEW CANADIAN BRIDGE

Saturday, January 2, 2021

East topped dummy's jack with the queen but shifted to the king of spades. South grabbed the ace, ran the diamond suit and played a club, winning the king when West followed low. He then elected to cash the ace of hearts for a game-fulfilling ninth winner, N-S +600. East had switched to a spade because partner could not hold more than four hearts since South had opened 1NT but there was a very slim chance that partner could hold the ace of spades. Would South really open 1NT without anything of value in the major suits? He surely would have won the ace of hearts at trick one in this scenario. A heart continuation defeats the contract because declarer holds a singleton heart and can manage only eight tricks. The director was summoned at the conclusion of play because South had opened 1NT with a singleton deuce of hearts. The ACBL permits this action but the singleton must be the ace, king or queen with a pattern of 5,4,3,1 or 4,4,4,1 and perhaps 6,3,3,1. South's collection did not meet these requirements, never mind the fact that he owned but 13 HCP. The adjustment by the director awarded E-W average plus and N-S average minus.