aceS on bridge

“The splendid achievements of the intellect, like the soul, are everlasting.” — Sallust

At his first turn, North felt his hand was inappropriate for a negative double and that he could not bid one no-trump without a heart stopper. While his partner could have been 4-4 in the majors, he took a reasonable shot to raise diamonds. Then he produced an imaginative raise of his partner’s two-spade call, sensibly noting that his own failure to make a negative double at his first turn had limited his spade holding to three cards. That got his side to the best game — four spades.

West started the defense by leading three top hearts, of course. How was declarer supposed to tackle the hand?

The problem with ruffing the third heart and drawing trumps is that in the (somewhat unlikely) event that West has four spades, declarer will be left with an inevitable club loser and will have to lose a trick to the long trump. Even if East has the long trumps, 10 tricks will not be assured. It is far better to discard the almost-inevitable club loser at trick three.

When the defenders shift to trumps, declarer should try to draw trumps in three rounds. If they split, declarer will either attempt to ruff out the clubs, or must fall back on diamonds behaving. If trumps are 4-2 as in the diagram, four rounds of spades will almost certainly squeeze East in the minors. Since West has nine cards in the majors, the minors will run for six tricks unless West also has honorthird in clubs.

ANSWER: Were you tempted to treat this hand as worthy of an invitation to game? Despite your fine intermediates, this hand is nothing more than a maximum raise to two spades — and that is especially true if you play the forcing no-trump, where a simple raise is already a constructive hand. There are many ways to go minus when you should be going plus.