Bridge: “Anyone who hates children and dogs can’t be all bad.” – W.C. Fields

Today’s deal comes from the Internet, the declarer being Mark Feldman of New York.

A diamond lead would have sunk his slam, but when West led a spade against six clubs in response to East’s lead-directing double, declarer was in with a shout.

South’s problem was how to generate an extra heart trick on which to discard a diamond loser from dummy.

Normal play would be to lead up to dummy’s jack, but East’s takeout double of two clubs suggested that he was the heavy favorite to possess the heart queen.

So a different approach would be required.

Assuming that his right-hand opponent had at least four hearts headed by the queen and either the 10 or nine, declarer found that he could succeed by the ingenious approach of drawing trump and playing a heart to dummy’s eight.

East won the heart 10 and played a second spade.

Declarer ruffed in hand, crossed to dummy with the diamond ace and advanced the heart jack.

If East ducked, declarer could let the jack ride, then play another trump to hand to cash the ace and king of hearts while pitching dummy’s two diamond losers.

If East covered the heart jack, declarer would win the ace.

The king of hearts would then drop West’s nine, setting up the heart seven for the crucial second discard from the North hand.

This maneuver of finessing into one player, then pinning a card in the other opponent’s hand, is called an intrafinesse.

Bid with the aces

South holds:

Answer: Double for takeout again.

This sequence shows extras beyond the first call, but your perfect shape and excellent controls make this action a sensible one.

If North has a five-card suit, a three-level contract should play well enough for your side.

Alternatively, you may push your opponents up a critical level.