Today's hand is a good example of the aggressive bidding that is very prevalent in competitive bridge. The North-South pair have reached a contract of four spades with the potential of losing four tricks; a spade, two hears, and a club. And yet, as the cards lie, there is only one lead that will defeat this contract.
After one club by North and one spade by South, North's one no trump bid says that he does not have more than 14 points and he does not have four spades. It also tends to deny six clubs, because if he had six clubs he might bid two clubs instead.
South's two diamond bid promises a four card diamond suit, a five card spade suit (or possibly six) and ten or more points.
With three small spades, North simply takes a preference back to the spade suit. South makes his last attempt to reach game by bidding three spades. I think that North should pass. If the king of clubs were the queen of spades there would be no question that he should bid the game, but with three small spades, he is putting the partnership on thin ice.
West has a very difficult decision to make. A small heart from under the king-jack will defeat this contract, but that is a very difficult lead to make. The seven of spades is safe and doesn't appear to give anything away. In fact, it gives away the timing needed to defeat the hand.
Declarer wins the ace and leads the five of clubs. What is West to do now? I think that with this holding it is correct to play the ace. The truth is, on this hand it doesn't matter. If he plays the ace declarer will have time to discard one of his heart losers on the king, and if he ducks, declarer never loses a club trick.
Was this a good game to be in? Probably not, except it made. Declarer had to be fortunate enough to get any lead other than a heart, find the outstanding trump split 3-2, and find the ace of clubs in the West hand. And yet, that's what happened. The hand was played 16 times and half of the pairs bid and made four spades. Most of the rest played in a spade partial making three or four.
To be competitive you have to be willing to take some
chances. This one worked out well.
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Bernstein is
a free-lance writer in Solon.
To reach Harvey Bernstein:
hjb0416@yahoo.com