ACES ON BRIDGE

“The king was in his counting house

Counting out his money.”

— Traditional

Cardinal Morton found a neat revenue-raising trick when raising money for Henry VII from the nobility. Hospitality implied money to spare, thus a large contribution to the king. But penny-pinching meals suggested thrift, so plenty of money saved up.

In bridge terms, the Morton’s Fork coup involves forcing an opponent either to duck or to win a trick at an unpalatable moment.

Against four spades on the lead of the heart five to the ace and a second heart, South led the spade eight to dummy’s ace and played a second trump. When East produced the king, South unblocked his nine. East now switched to a diamond. South won in hand and led his spade four to dummy’s five, then belatedly advanced dummy’s low club. If East took his ace, there would be two homes for dummy’s diamond losers. If East ducked, South would win, then pitch the last club from dummy on the heart winner.

East should have played a third round of hearts at trick four; now South would have had to discard from dummy prematurely. However, South’s mistake was playing the second trump; yes, cross to the spade ace, but next play the low club from dummy. Now you catch East in the Morton’s Fork dilemma, with no way out.

Curiously, though, the defense can prevail by force. If East puts in the heart jack at trick one (violating third hand high), upon winning the spade king, he clears the hearts and forces the premature discard again. Now if declarer plays clubs before hearts, East simply ducks the first club.

ANSWER: Jump to four spades. One would prefer not to have a keycard and an outside control for this pre-emptive raise, but nothing else seems suitable here. Making a limit raise seems pessimistic, but showing game-forcing values via a Jacoby two no-trump would vastly overstate the hand. If a jump to three no-trump showed a raise to four with defense, that might be a reasonable choice.