After side suits, then come trumps

PEARLS BEFORE SWINE® GARFIELD® BIG NATE® ARLO & JANIS® ZITS®

Voltaire said, “Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.”

Many people have paraphrased that sentiment. This week, we are looking at the defenders taking more trump tricks than might have been expected at the start of a deal.

How does the play go in this four-spade contract after West leads the diamond king?

In Standard American, North’s sequence shows at least game-forcing values with exactly three-card spade support. South has nice trumps, but those diamond losers are worrying. Using two-over-one game-force, North would rebid two spades to send the same message. Then South might continue with three spades to show some extra values. This would persuade North to control-bid four clubs; South would control-bid four hearts; and North would sign off in four spades. The snag with this sequence, of course, is that it telegraphs the diamond lead even if West has something like ace-queen-third.

At trick one, East signals with an encouraging diamond eight. West cashes the diamond queen, then leads a third round to East’s ace. What happens next?

East should check the points. He has five, dummy holds 15, and West has produced five. That leaves 15 unaccounted for. If West had the heart ace, he should have cashed that winner before leading the third diamond. So, all side-suit tricks have been taken. East should lead his last diamond, which promotes West’s spade jack as the setting trick.