Bridge

The semifinals of the 1999 American Trials saw Robinson build up a reasonable lead over Wolfson, the eventual winners of the trials. But then Wolfson turned on the after-burners and won by what in the end appeared to be a deceptively comfortable margin.

During their charge, the following deal came up, emphasizing that occasionally the magic of Zia (of the Wolfson team) could sometimes achieve a result that, to the naked eye, would seem impossible.

The auction, ending in three no-trump, had put West off the diamond attack, but when the heart three went to the jack and queen, the defense already had four more tricks in aces and kings to cash. However, back came a spade at trick two, and Zia won in dummy and played a diamond to the 10 — well, why not? West took his king and shifted to clubs, again not absurd.

East won the ace and returned the suit, and Zia deceptively followed with the club 10 on the second round of the suit, cold-bloodedly sacrificing a club trick to make it look as if he had started life with only a three-card club suit. Can you blame West for winning the king and then taking his eye off the ball by returning the suit? That might have been necessary if Zia had the diamond ace without the spade ace, but the result here was disastrous. Declarer’s clubs now had become re-established as winners, and Zia took three club tricks, four spades tricks, and two hearts, to make his contract.

Bid with the aces

South holds:

Answer: Raise to two hearts, even with only three small trumps, rather than bidding one no-trump. Here you are not ashamed of your hand, with some good intermediates and a ruffing value, so you do not need to slow the auction down. Make the immediate raise. If partner continues, you will not be unduly concerned.