ACES ON BRIDGE

“Golf has too much walking to be a good game and just enough game to spoil a good walk.”

— Harry Leon Wilson

The Swedish golf star Jesper Parnevik made it to the top 10 in the world in his heyday, but he also plays a mean game of bridge. He was at the helm for today’s IBPA awards deal.

After an abrupt and aggressive fourcard-major auction, Parnevik (who spends a lot of time in Florida these days) arrived in the spade game. Larry Cohen, who originally reported the deal, failed to find the killing low-diamond lead, and understandably so. He preferred the relative safety of the club six, which went to the nine and ace. It looked as though declarer had three diamonds and a trump to lose, but thanks to some deft dummy handling and a fortunate layout, the contract came home via a crossruff.

Parnevik drew two rounds of trumps with the ace and king, then took the remaining top hearts and clubs, ending in hand. Next came a heart ruff, followed by a club ruff and a fourth heart. On this trick, West felt the pinch of an unusual squeeze.

Ruffing would do no good, for dummy would simply let go of a diamond. Pitching a diamond would fare no better, with declarer able to ruff the heart and elope with a second club ruff.

Cohen chose to shed the club jack, but declarer had noticed the club 10 was now good. He ruffed the fourth heart and threw a diamond on the long club. He had needed to score one more trick, whether West ruffed in or not, and he had found the way.

ANSWER: You are a point shy of the requirement for a limit raise of three spades, but your controls and ruffing value justify taking that high road here. If one of your kings were instead a queen and a jack in a different suit, the hand would be less powerful and probably worth only a simple raise of two spades. Even though a simple raise is constructive if your one-no-trump response is forcing, I’d go high here.