ACES ON BRIDGE

“There is not to be found, in all history, any miracle attested by a sufficient number of men of such unquestioned good sense, education and learning, as to secure us against all delusion in themselves.”

— David Hume

North-south bid their hands to the limit. Perhaps South should have let four hearts go, but he pressed on with a four-spade cue-bid. North now looked kindly upon his spade queen and drove to slam via Roman Key-card Blackwood — a huge overbid. Indeed, some players might have gone low and treated the North hand as an invitational jump to three hearts at their second turn.

Declarer won West’s lead of the diamond king in dummy, drawing trumps in two rounds and then pitching his diamond on the third spade. When West followed with the spade jack, it was apparent that the best (a priori) play of a club to the jack would not work; West did not have room for the club ace-queen in addition to the diamond king-queen and spade jack, having passed as dealer. Besides finding the miracle of club queen-10 doubleton onside, declarer’s best bet was to work an endplay. He planned to lead up to the club king, hoping the ace was onside, then duck the second round to an honor doubleton, receiving a ruff-and-discard in return.

The pointed suits had to be eliminated, of course. Declarer ruffed a spade and led a club to the king as planned. When that bought low cards, South ruffed a diamond and played another club. East won with the queen and had no choice but to return a pointed suit, allowing declarer to pitch a club loser from one hand and ruff in the other — slam made.

As South remarked, the age of miracles had not yet passed.

ANSWER: The diamond holding is not ideal for a one-no-trump overcall, which might wrong-side the contract. If it is a part-score deal, one would prefer to bring the majors into play with length in both. I would certainly double, intending simply to raise a major to two in an uncontested auction; that would show real extras.