aceS on bridge

“To throw away the dearest thing he owned As ‘twere a careless trifle.” -- William Shakespeare

Today’s deal from the United Kingdom occurred in a Gold Cup match, a knockout tournament that is organized in its early stages across the whole country until the field is reduced to eight teams, whereupon the final stages are played at a single venue.

The hero of the deal was Gunnar Hallberg, who sat West. Hallberg is an expatriate Swede who came to London for the rubber bridge two decades ago and has since won a series of European and world titles for the English senior team.

You may want to cover up the South and East hands to see whether you would have found the winning play.

Against three no-trump the defense started with three rounds of spades, declarer holding up his ace until the third round. Declarer now needed to establish one of the minors, and the diamond suit is clearly the more promising option. It looks as if South will succeed because East cannot gain the lead to cash his spades.

However, when declarer cashed the diamond ace, Hallberg dropped his king! Now there was no way East could be prevented from gaining the lead with his jack, and three no-trump had to go down.

It was just as well for Hallberg’s team that he found such a good defense because in the other room North-South had lost their way and ended up in a hopeless five clubs. But Hallberg’s defense helped to level the board.

ANSWER: As my problems go, this one is a bit of a gimme. Your choice is to rebid one no-trump or to repeat diamonds. Just for the record, a call of two hearts would be a reverse, forcing partner to give preference at the three-level and showing at least an ace more than you hold. Of the two choices, rebidding one no-trump limits the hand and describes what you have; two diamonds wrongly emphasizes diamonds.