ACES ON BRIDGE
Cover up the East and West cards and play the ambitious contract of six no-trump on the lead of the heart jack. Which hand would you win in, and what would you lead to trick two?
There are not enough entries to dummy both to take the spade finesse twice and also to set up and cash the fifth diamond if necessary, not to mention the club finesse. So, you win in dummy and take the spade finesse. When it holds, what do you play to trick three?
The deal came up in a tournament in a New York event. The declarer, Michael Rosenberg, assumed that the spade finesse was right, so that if diamonds split, he had 12 top tricks. How could he make the hand legitimately if diamonds did not break?
Rosenberg realized that the best additional chance he could find without jeopardizing his other options was to find the club jack dropping doubleton (a healthy
6% chance). So, at trick three, he advanced the club queen from his hand!
West chose to duck, so Rosenberg could test clubs by laying down the club ace. When the club jack surfaced, he had 12 tricks via three winners in each suit without needing the diamonds to behave.
As Rosenberg commented, if the defense had taken the club queen, he would have had a choice of continuations. He could have played for some esoteric squeezes together with the finesse against the club jack, or the actual lie of the cards. He probably would have opted simply to try to drop the club jack.
ANSWER: All your high cards are in your partner’s suits, and you have a fine fit for him. Bid two spades, guaranteeing a good diamond raise, and then advance with three hearts over three diamonds in case you belong in four hearts rather than five diamonds. You will stop in four diamonds if partner bids it.