If partner overbids, you must overplay

Emily Dickinson wrote, “Luck is not chance, it’s toil; fortune’s expensive smile is earned.”

That is usually true. At the bridge table, unless you and your partner are excessively cautious in the auction, you will often need some luck to make your contract. This is especially true if you have pushed into a thin game.

In today’s deal, South is in four hearts. When the dummy comes down, declarer cannot count 10 top tricks. How should he try to get lucky after taking the first trick with his spade ace?

The one-club opening wouldn’t bring a smile to anyone’s face (because the suit is so poor), but when you have ace-king, ace, you should strain to open. North makes a negative double to show his heart length, South “raises” his partner’s suit, and North hopes for the best.

Declarer realized that he could not handle bad breaks. He needed either a doubleton heart queen or no diamond loser.

Since time was of the essence, South immediately led a low diamond to dummy’s jack. When the finesse worked, declarer played a heart to his ace and continued with his remaining low diamond. When the king appeared, South won with dummy’s ace, played a trump to his king, ruffed a spade on the board, played a diamond to the 10, ruffed his last spade, discarded a club on the diamond queen and claimed. Declarer took one spade, three hearts, four diamonds and two spade ruffs.

Finally, note that South had to resist the temptation to run his diamond 10; otherwise, West would have covered with the king and held declarer to three diamond tricks.