ACES ON BRIDGE

“Thinking is to me the greatest fatigue in the world.”

— John Vanbrugh

In the 1995 final of the Bermuda Bowl, USA beat Canada, but their comfortable lead might have evaporated had things turned out differently for Canada in this deal. Both Bob Hamman and Eric

Kokish reached the excellent contract of seven clubs, and the American declarer went down quickly by playing four rounds of trumps then trying to ruff out the heart queen when the spade finesse failed.

Eric Kokish cashed the fifth trump early, on which West pitched a spade, Kokish throwing a diamond from dummy. However, Kokish's play then transposed into

Hamman's unsuccessful line.

The fact that the spade discard was the seven might have indicated shortness. If declarer reads this, there can be no advantage in trying to ruff out hearts and falling back on the spade finesse. Instead, he should throw a heart on the fifth trump, then cash the spade ace-king and ruff a spade. The last trump comes next, pitching another diamond; he cashes the diamond ace, dropping a spade from dummy. Unless the diamond 10 is good, declarer then takes the heart finesse.

West cannot pitch a heart at any point, and if he unguards diamonds, declarer throws a spade from dummy and ruffs the third heart.

On the last trump, West keeps his heart queen, reducing to the diamond king, a heart and a spade, and dummy releases its last diamond. Then East must unguard spades, to keep diamonds guarded, letting declarer guess spades in the twocard ending.