ACES ON BRIDGE

“You have to keep a watch on the Swiss.”

-- Anonymous

In important events these days, you can watch the experts on the Internet, but you can also attend the tournament and watch them play live on closed- circuit TV, with commentators watching the players’ every move.

Today’s deal was played under just such conditions 50 years ago by Montreal expert Sam Gold. He was able to outplay the analysts, who of course could see all four hands.

Gold had done well in the auction, having reached a vulnerable game with decent chances rather than trying for a penalty double of two spades, a contract that is hard to defeat by more than one trick, even after a trump lead. But while Gold was planning his play in three no- trump, the commentators said that finding the right line to bring home nine tricks would be beyond most people. But Sam proved them wrong.

After winning dummy’s spade ace, a low diamond went to East’s ace, more or less confirming him to have singletons in each red suit. East returned the spade jack to Gold’s queen, and Sam next ran the diamond 10 through West. When this held the trick, a diamond was led to the king, then the heart ace cashed, removing East’s lone heart.

Now Gold came back to his hand with a top club and took his master diamond for his seventh trick. When he led with a high spade, East could score his three remaining spades, but then had to lead into the club tenace in dummy and concede nine tricks.

ANSWER: You have a choice here. You can simply raise to two hearts, a relatively wide- ranging action in competition, or you can double for takeout. With three hearts and limited values, I think I will settle for the raise. Switch the hearts and clubs, and the double stands out. Equally, with an extra king, doubling gets the high cards across nicely.