ACES ON BRIDGE

This pairs deal feels like one where the field should reach four hearts by South after a strong notrump opening bid by that player, whether North uses Stayman or a Jacoby transfer.

West has a normal enough lead of the club king, and a thoughtful East should overtake with the ace to return the suit. West ought to see he should win the second club and play a third round of the suit, and now the spotlight shifts to South.

East’s unusual play at the first trick makes it highly likely that he has only two clubs, and that he hopes to overruff the dummy on a third round of clubs. South cannot prevent the loss of the third club, but he can avoid the futile play of contributing a trump from dummy. Instead, he should discard a potentially losing spade from the North hand. Later on, after trumps have been drawn, South can discard the remaining spade loser from dummy on the third round of diamonds.

This play of loser-on-loser eliminates the losing spades from the dummy, and South thus has a comfortable route to 10 tricks. But if declarer ruffs trick three in dummy, he will be overruffed. There will be no sensible alternative to the spade finesse after drawing trumps, and today South’s luck will be out.

You could argue that going down in four hearts is unlucky. I prefer to think of South’s fate as deserved. It is somehow appropriate that when you follow an inaccurate line of play, the cards do not forgive.

ANSWER: Not all five-card suits are created equal; as George Orwell might say, some are more -- or less -- equal than others. I will make an executive decision that I don’t want to look for a five-three heart fit (for example, by a Smolen call of three spades to show this major-suit pattern), but I will simply bid three no-trump directly and forget about the hearts.

“We are not sure of sorrow, And joy was never sure.”

-- Algernon Swinburne