ACES ON BRIDGE

“Philosophers are people who know less and less about more and more, until they know nothing about everything. Scientists are people who know more and more about less and less, until they know everything about nothing.”

— Anonymous

David Gurvich was watching a deal in the Vanderbilt Knockout Teams match between Mahaffey and the Texan Aces last spring in Reno, Nevada. At both tables, South declared four hearts on the lead of the diamond jack to dummy’s queen. East’s diamond five at trick one would be true count — but it is, of course, very hard to read.

Both declarers led the ace and another heart, a line that would succeed unless hearts were 3-1 with no singleton high honor to the right, and the club finesse was failing. But today was that unlucky day.

A far better approach is to lead a heart from dummy at trick two, covering East’s five. While there are some unlucky lies of the cards where this would fail, in practice, West will win the heart 10 and return a diamond. When East follows suit, you can guarantee the contract by leading a heart to the ace.

When West discards, you simply ruff a diamond in dummy. It does East no good to overruff, because you have entries back to hand to pitch clubs on the two good diamonds. But if East does not overruff, play a third trump yourself. You can win the club return and again discard both of dummy’s club losers on your good diamonds.

ANSWER: The right minimum opener for your partner gives you excellent play for slam — if partner has the missing honors in the red suits, for example. That means you should not jump to game; instead, start by bidding a forcing three diamonds. If partner signs off in three hearts, give up on slam, but if he shows signs of life, I might risk the five-level to explore for slam.