ACES ON BRIDGE

Continuing our tournament week, this deal was played in the quarterfinals of the 1998 American Trials for the Bermuda Bowl.

Four hearts may seem hopeless, but the three-no-trump contract Eric Greco (playing with Geoff Hampson) had steered himself to did not appear to have much play either. It was an interesting decision to hide the four-card heart support. No doubt Greco was expecting a spade lead against three no-trump but not necessarily against four hearts, and he reasoned that nine tricks would be easier than 10.

However, West thoughtfully avoided leading spades, starting off with a diamond to the queen and king. Greco started his tour of deception when he immediately led a low club from his hand to dummy’s jack, which served to convince the defenders to block the suit. John Sutherlin won his queen and returned the diamond nine.

Greco had to take this, and he then played a hear t to the ace.

He finessed in hearts successfully and then cashed two more heart tricks as West threw away two spades and a diamond. At this point, Greco threw West in with the club ace. He could take his diamond winners but had to lead spades into the tenace at the end, for nine tricks.

The defense clearly could have prevailed in a number of ways, but right at the end, the most egregious error was West’s. He could afford to let go of two spades, but on the last heart he should have jettisoned the club ace. He should have seen the endplay looming if he did not.

ANSWER: You do not really have enough for a Michaels cue-bid. You might try that if all your high cards were in your long suits, but an overcall of one spade is more than enough on this hand, no matter what the vulnerability is. It is not so much that the two-suited overcall will always fail, but more that you want your partner to trust that you will have more on the Michaels sequence going forward.