Bridge

The Dyspeptics Club has bridge players of all abilities, but East is one with a justifiably high opinion of his own skill levels, and a justifiably low one of West’s. On today’s deal South had stopped in a three-spade partscore (an unusual event in itself), and West led out the ace, king and queen of diamonds.

It would have been easy for East to discard a small heart, but he paused for a moment’s reflection. Declarer probably had a good six-card spade suit along with the heart ace and club king for his intermediate jump overcall in the balancing position. If he discarded now, East realized that he would never gain the lead to play a club through declarer, and in time South would discard all of his club losers on dummy’s hearts. So East committed what might be the ultimate crime in some people’s book – ruffing partner’s winner. He then switched to a club to defeat the hand.

At the end of the deal East looked around for a word of congratulation. West finally spoke. “Did you forget my diamond queen was high? Never mind, it happens to us all, partner.”

Of course, West could have been more helpful here. He should have foreseen the position and played the diamond jack on the third round. Then East would have had no choice but to ruff, on the assumption that it was declarer who had the diamond queen and that he was ruffing a loser.

Bid with the aces

South holds:

Answer: Bid one spade rather than doubling. In the old days overcalls showed weak hands, and one doubled with all single-suiters stronger than an opening bid. These days, one can overcall and bid again to show extras. You will almost never miss game by taking this action, plus you will not mislead partner about the strength of your overcall.