Bridge

The finals of the 1999 U.S. Trials between Wolfson and Team Goldman featured an unusual play of the trump suit on today’s deal.

The auctions, ending at two hearts, were identical at both tables, and both Wests led a club. At one table the declarer for Wolfson won the third club and tried a heart to the jack and ace. West carefully cashed the spade ace and then played a fourth round of clubs, with East ruffing with the heart queen. That established two more trump tricks for the defense and ensured the defeat of the contract.

At the other table, the defense cashed their three black-suit winners and then played a third club. At this point South, Peter Weichsel (having already seen East produce both top clubs), decided that East could not have both top heart honors, or he would have bid. Accordingly, leading a heart to the jack would lose out to the trump promotion we saw in the other room.

The one chance to make the hand was that East had the heart queen and at least the heart nine or 10. So at trick five Weichsel played the heart four from dummy and let it ride to West’s 10! Now although West could lead a club, East could not ruff in to create a trump promotion for West, and the defense was finished.

This was only a small swing for the Goldman Team, but that did not in any way detract from the elegance of the play.

Bid with the aces

South holds:

Answer: Pass, rather than looking for an unlikely game. Did you remember that a balancing call of one no-trump here shows 11-14 points, not a strong no-trump? With more, partner would have doubled, then rebid one no-trump.