Bridge THE LURE OF AN OVERTRICK

I have never read anything by Oliver Goldsmith, and after seeing this, I do not think I will start. In the “Vicar of Wakefield” we find, “The premises being thus settled, I proceed to observe that the concatenation of self-existence, proceeding in a reciprocal duplicate ratio, naturally produces a problematical dialogism, which in some measure proves that the essence of spirituality may be referred to the second predicable.” Wow!

In bridge, some people prefer to play for money, but others prefer duplicate. There, if you get bad cards, so do all of the players sitting your way, North-South or East-West.

In Chicago, this deal would be boring. In four hearts, declarer would take his 10 top tricks. But in a duplicate, an overtrick could be worth a lot of matchpoints. How should South plan the play after West leads the spade jack?

In the auction, North’s jump to four hearts denied an ace, a king, a void or a singleton. It could have been made with 0 points.

As just mentioned, South has 10 winners: three spades, five hearts and two clubs. An overtrick can come from a 3-3 spade break (slightly less likely than normal, given the lead) or a spade ruff on the board.

The right play is to draw two rounds of trumps, then to play on spades. If they prove to be 3-3, declarer draws the missing trump and claims that overtrick. Here, though, East cannot ruff the third spade. South takes it, ruffs his last spade on the board, plays a club to his ace, removes West’s third heart and receives over average.