“You that are going to be married think things can never be done too fast, but we that are old and know what we are about must elope methodically, Madam.” – Oliver Goldsmith

At the Dyspeptics Club, relying on small mathematical advantages is considered bad form. Far more importance is placed on speed rather than accuracy. In today’s six-heart contract, South won the spade lead in hand, drew trumps, and then tried for a club discard by cashing the king and ace of diamonds and ruffing the third round, hoping to drop the queen. When this failed, he cashed the club ace and led up to the queen, hoping the king was onside. One down.

Declarer was a little unlucky but failed to play the hand to best advantageWas South’s play of the diamond suit best? No. A finesse (winning when West has the diamond queen in a four-card suit or longer) offers better odds than finding East with the diamond queen in a suit of three or fewer cards.

Hold on, though. To play diamonds this way and also have the chance of finding the club king onside, one must play on clubs first. So, without cashing the club ace, play a small club away from the ace toward the queen and, when this loses, fall back on the diamond finesse. Voila!

Some experts might prefer a third line and go down. Having given up a club, they would play for the hand with the third club to have the diamond queen and eventually would play for the drop in diamonds. This line is certainly no better than finding the diamond queen onside.

Bid with the aces

South holds:

Answer: When you have two hearts and three clubs, it is perfectly acceptable to pass here or to go back to two hearts. You should be guided by how happy you would be to hear partner bid on. Here, even the two-level may be too high, so pass two clubs. But with, say, the diamond queen extra (or the heart queen instead of the spade queen), revert to two hearts.