ACES ON BRIDGE

“If he were

To be made honest by an act of parliament

I should not alter in my faith of him.”

— Ben Jonson

Ulf Nilsson and Owen Lien combined well in this hand from the San Francisco nationals. Ulfnilsson stratosphere, and Lien came through with the goods.

East aimed to make life difficult for his opponents with a four-spade preempt. South doubled to show a good hand, and North opted to pull to four no-trump, offering two places to play. The general consensus is that you should only bid over these doubles when you expect to make your own contract. That was not the case in North's position, but his gambit worked well.

Against five diamonds, after the lead of the club queen to the ace, East cashed one top spade and returned a club. Lien ruffed, cashed the diamond king as two low diamonds appeared, then paused to take stock.

He needed the heart queen to fall in two rounds, but he also wanted to get a count of the hand. So, he next took a spade ruff as West followed, then a club ruff (all following suit again) and cashed the heart ace-king to drop East's queen. East was known to be 7=2=1=3 now, so Lien could cross to the heart jack and ruff another club while West followed, then ruff a heart low in dummy.

At this point, after 11 tricks, declarer had a high cross-ruff for the rest. In the other room, four spades was allowed to play undoubled, and declarer did not have the entry to dummy to take the club finesse. He dropped the club king and went quietly one down, for an 11-IMP gain for Lien's team.

ANSWER: A jump to four spades would be too much, and partner would be expecting a different hand for that call. Most would start slowly with one spade, intending to jump at their next turn with the slightest encouragement. There is no obvious reason for either side to be able to make game here.