BRIDGE WITH BOB JONES Shake your head

North-South vulnerable, South deals

WEST

NORTH

The bidding:

SOUTH WEST

4w

Opening lead: Ace of

How high would you choose to open with the South hand? We imagine levels one through four would all attract some votes. Four hearts, at this vulnerability, might be last on the list, but that is what a Polish expert chose to open in a recent tournament in Europe. West might have doubled, but he was afraid his partner would take the double out. West decided to take the “sure” plus at 50 points per undertrick.

South ruffed the high club lead and cashed the ace and king of hearts, followed by a third heart. West won and had an uncomfortable play. He could count six heart tricks for declarer, plus two spades with a finesse. The queen of clubs would only be declarer’s ninth trick, so West led the king of clubs, setting up the board’s queen. South ruffed and then made the key play of leading the 10 of spades from his hand. West covered with the jack, dummy played the queen, and East the nine. South ruffed a club back to his hand and led a spade to dummy’s six. He ruffed dummy’s good queen of clubs and led a spade to dummy’s eight. The ace and five of spades allowed two diamond discards and declarer claimed with an overtrick!

Critics said that West should have defeated the contract by unblocking his high hearts under the ace and king, thus allowing East to win the third heart and shift to a high diamond. That’s a tough ask. How could West possibly know that South had only seven hearts? South might easily have had eight.

EAST