Minding the rules

“Did you hear about the semicolon who broke one of the laws of grammar?” my friend the English professor asked me in the club lounge.

“Was he tried and convicted?”

“He was given two consecutive sentences,” the prof said blandly.

Some of the bridge “rules” you hear about — “cover an honor with an honor,” for instance — are questionable at best, but most do have some sort of logical basis. Others are undeniably valid.

In today’s deal, North-South did well to hit the brakes at three hearts. After East’s overcall of two spades, North discounted the value of his queen, and South didn’t like his three low spades.

As it turned out, even the three level was too high because East-West defended accurately. West led the king of spades, East signaled with the jack, and West led a second spade for East to take the ten and ace.

East could see one more

trick with his ace of clubs, but since he placed South with the ace of diamonds for his opening bid — probably the queen as well — the defense needed a trump trick to prevail. At the fourth trick, East cashed his ace of clubs. He then led a spade, and West ruffed with the jack of trumps, obliging dummy to overruff with the queen and promoting East’s 10-9-8. Down one.

It’s a rule of defensive play that defenders should cash their side-suit winners before they try to manufacture a trump trick with an “uppercut” or trump promotion. If East leads another spade at Trick Four, South can counter effectively by pitching his club loser.