ACES ON BRIDGE

“So long as the mother, Ignorance, lives, it is not safe for Science, the offspring, to divulge the hidden causes of things.”

— Johannes Kepler On this deal from the USA2 mixed team trials, South played three diamonds on the indicated club two lead. How would you plan the play?

You may be doomed if East has a singleton heart and the defenders get the hand right. However, imagine that after a heart play at trick two, West gives her partner the ruff. East might try a spade rather than a diamond. That will give you a chance to discard both of dummy’s remaining hearts on black-suit tricks. But to do that, you must unblock dummy’s club king at trick one. After all, East’s double marks him with the high clubs.

At trick one, East takes dummy’s club king with the ace and shifts to the heart jack: king, ace. Back comes the heart six, ruffed by East. A diamond return to West’s ace would allow for another heart ruff, but East tries a spade.

You grab the spade aceking, discarding a heart, and then ruff a spade to finesse the club 10. Dummy’s last heart disappears on the club queen, leaving you to play trumps for one loser.

You have to guess whether to play a low diamond now, to stop East’s diamond jack from being promoted on a third heart if West started with ace-doubleton in diamonds, or to lead the diamond king to prevent a fourth club from promoting the diamond jack in West.

Perhaps West would not have bothered returning a heart unless she had an entry on the side, since she could see her heart 10 was a slow winner? You duly advance the diamond four and rack up your contract.

ANSWER: You would only bid a longer diamond suit ahead of a four-card major if you had enough to force to game. so many would respond one heart here, lest they lose a 4-4 heart fit on a partscore deal. For my part, though, I must admit I am tempted to ignore the anemic hearts altogether and bid one diamond, or make a weak jump to two diamonds. After all, if we have hearts, the enemy probably has spades.