ACES ON BRIDGE

Pulling weeds and picking stones Man is made of dreams and bones.

— John Denver

Here is a deal from the finals of the North American Swiss Teams in Denver, which might be subtitled “Silence Is Golden.”

At one table, where East-West had been silent, the declarer in three notrump won the first trick with his diamond queen, cashed the spade king and played a spade to dummy’s jack. He failed by three tricks.

At the featured table, though, West’s double showed a long minor suit and some values. Now after the diamond lead against three no-trump, declarer realized that he could not afford to risk letting East gain the lead. Since West was surely favored to hold the heart ace, he could afford to lose a spade trick to

West. So, on winning the diamond king at trick one, he led the club jack and overtook with dummy’s queen, then ran the spade jack.

Then he played a spade to the king, led a low club to dummy’s 10, and cashed the spade ace, discarding a heart from hand, West parting with a club. Even though the spade queen did not drop, declarer could continue with a club to his king, East signaling with the heart queen. In the end position, South cashed the last club winner, and West had to discard his heart ace to save the overtrick.

Perhaps declarer could have played a heart before cashing the long club, giving West no chance to rid himself of the heart ace, but nonetheless, plus 400 was still worth 11 IMPs for the eventual winners of the event.

ANSWER: Rebid two hearts. This is the sort of hand where you may have no tricks to offer your partner if he cannot establish the hearts, since there may be no entry to your hand. By contrast, even facing a likely doubleton heart, you have a hand with about four playing tricks in hearts. So settle in the suit, not no-trump.

If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, email him at bobbywolff@mindspring.com