ACES ON BRIDGE

Genius is not so much a light as it is a constant awareness of the surrounding gloom. — Stanislaw Lem

North’s double of one spade promised three-card heart support. Once North had cue-bid four spades and Anders Hagen (South) had made a fiveclub cue-bid, North might have bid five diamonds, then passed five hearts. But no one did anything silly to reach a horrible slam.

Anders won the spade lead in dummy, finessed the heart queen and cashed the ace. (Only a diamond lead would have set the slam by force.) Then a club toward dummy put the screws to West. He correctly ducked, and the club king won the trick. Next it was East’s turn to have a problem, when South sneakily called for a low diamond from dummy.

Again, the defense was good: East won the trick with the diamond 10, and West let it hold. It might have been better to overtake with the jack and continue with a low diamond, to force declarer into an immediate guess.

East exited with a spade to dummy, and declarer cashed all his trumps. When South continued with the heart two, West was caught in a show-up squeeze. He had to discard a diamond, and, knowing where the club ace was, declarer could be sure that West’s last two cards included at most one diamond. So he successfully played for the drop in diamonds.

At trick four, when the club king held, South might have played for an elimination. He could ruff a club, cross back to dummy in spades, cash the diamond ace, and ruff the last club. Declarer would then play a diamond to the queen. Even if East won it, as here, he would be endplayed if he had started with a doubleton diamond.

ANSWER: Bid four hearts. This is the time to put the pressure on, with high offense and not much defense, in third position. Open one more than you might as dealer, since you know the opponents have the majority of points, and this will make it hard for them to identify their best spot. At unfavorable vulnerability, though, three hearts is more than enough.