ACES ON BRIDGE

“We’re poor little lambs who’ve lost our way,

Baa! Baa! Baa!

We’re little black sheep who’ve gone astray, Baa-aa-aa!”

— Rudyard Kipling

Today's themed deal was played in a knockout match. Facing a 15-17 no-trump, North had a Texas transfer available, the way to get to game with no slam interest. Instead, though, he decided he had just enough for a mild slam try. South gave the matter some thought and chose not to advance, after which his result at the table was more embarrassing than usual. West led a trump against the game contract. South drew trumps, ending in dummy, and then took the heart finesse. West won and found the inspired shift to the club jack. Now, whatever declarer did, he was doomed to go one down.

When South started to whine about his bad luck, North cut him short by telling him he had missed a completely safe line for his contract. Can you see it?

Declarer wins trick one with the spade king and plays an intermediate trump to his hand. A diamond to the jack comes next. If the finesse holds, declarer has a safe line for 11 tricks by following the approach outlined below. If, however, East wins the diamond queen and shifts to a heart, declarer grabs the ace, unblocks in diamonds, comes back to hand in spades and throws dummy's heart loser on the diamond ace. Now he advances the heart queen, planning to let it run since East cannot hurt him in clubs. When West covers with the heart king, declarer ruffs this in dummy, leads the spade three to his five and then pitches a club on the heart jack. He can take the club finesse for an overtrick.