BRIDGE

South was too strong to bid one no-trump at his first turn, so he doubled hoping to get a chance to bid one no-trump at his next turn. His next turn was at the two level, and he could not have been comfortable bidding two no-trump, but he saw it through and caught a useful dummy.

The defense started with the king, ace, and jack of diamonds. South took his queen and paused for thought. West would not have bid two diamonds with only three of them, so East had opened a three-card suit. East’s most likely distribution was therefore 4-4-3-2, as he would have opened one club with other balanced distributions. Eight tricks were in the bag, so South set out after overtricks. He cashed the ace and king of hearts, felling the queen from Wesat. He now had nine tricks. Could he get a tenth?

South might be able to endplay East if East started with king doubleton of clubs. East could unblock his king under the ace, but to make that more difficult, declarer crossed to dummy’s ace of spades and led a low club. East played low, and South was smiling when he took his ace. Three more spades came next, East following. There was a chance that East started with just queen doubleton of clubs, but South couldn’t help himself. He exited with a low club. East won with his king but had to lead a heart into dummy’s jack-nine. The greedy declarer had 10 tricks and a top on the board!