ACES ON BRIDGE

Only good girls keep diaries.Bad girls don’t have time.

— Tallulah Bankhead

As a student, if your teacher warns you, “Be careful how you handle the heart suit,” take a moment to look before you leap!

South had a hand worth at least one try for slam, but the first thing to do was locate a trump fit. Once North produced a simple raise of spades, South drove to slam via Roman Key-card Blackwood.

Declarer won the top trump lead and cashed his second top spade, establishing that he had a trump loser. Then he cashed his top hearts, following what seemed like the natural sequence of the king, ace, queen. West ruffed the third round and got off lead with a club, and in the fullness of time, declarer ended up with losers in diamonds and the trump suit.

Once South knew that

West had a trump winner, he needed to be cautious about how he handled hearts. Cashing the king was fine; so was playing toward the ace in dummy.

If West held a singleton heart and chose to ruff, he would only be ruffing a loser, and there would be a home for the diamond loser. But now declarer should have returned to hand via a club in order to lead another heart. It does not help West’s cause to ruff the club, as he will immediately be forced to lead diamonds, and declarer’s loser will go away.

After scoring the heart queen, declarer cashes his remaining clubs and ruffs dummy’s fourth heart. Again, it does not help West’s cause to ruff the third heart, as declarer will eventually discard his diamond on dummy’s heart winner.

ANSWER: Three no-trump is surely the most practical call. Three spades is not nearly enough, and double risks partner’s bidding four of a minor. You need not fear East’s long hearts, since you expect you can hold up your king to break the defensive communications.