ACES ON BRIDGE

The man who said ‘I’d rather be lucky than good’ saw deeply into life. People are afraid to face how great a part of life is dependent on luck. — Woody Allen

Today’s deal is an example of how the play in teams or rubber bridge might differ significantly from what you would do in pairs.

As South, you declare four hearts and take the club queen with the ace. At first glance, you have decent chances to make slam — you need some breaks in the red suits, but is that too much to ask? At worst, it appears that you might have two diamond losers and one heart loser.

In pairs, the best line is clear. If you try to enter dummy with a trump to take the diamond finesse, the bad trump break comes to light … too late! West will play another heart after taking the diamond queen. Then he can play a third heart, preventing any diamond ruff in dummy.You will lose three diamonds and a heart and go down — but console yourself that you have made the best play for matchpoints, and went down only because of two poorly placed cards and a horrid break.

Correct play in teams, though, is to play a diamond honor from your hand — the 10 is probably best — without playing any trump at all. Even if the defense returns a trump after winning the diamond queen, they can’t stop you from ruffing one diamond in dummy, and losing only two diamonds and a trump. This is a safety play to retain trump control and falls under the general heading of “If you want to ruff something, don’t play a trump.”

ANSWER: Despite the fact that you know there is a trump stack in hearts against your LHO, you have no reason to assume you can defeat two hearts. If you wish to compete further, and I would, this is a perfect hand on which to bid two no-trump, suggesting this sort of pattern in the minors. Since you didn’t bid no-trump on your previous turn, this must be the equivalent of an unusual no-trump.