“For the merchant, even honesty is a financial speculation.” - Charles Baudelaire

Today’s deal determined the qualifiers for a recent Canadian National Teams Championship.

First, the bridge story. East’s second-round double shows an opening bid with short hearts. Over four hearts, should West pass, double, or bid four spades?

Eric Kokish bid four spades, doubled by North, who cleared the trumps. Kokish won the third, played dummy’s club ace and king, and ruffed a club. He then led the diamond jack, ducked by South, and a diamond to the king and ace. South now had to give dummy a diamond entry, allowing declarer to ruff out the clubs, or play a heart, letting declarer score the heart king for his 10th trick. A heart opening lead forces declarer to use one of dummy’s trumps prematurely. Now if declarer plays three clubs, then two diamonds, South wins and clears trumps, this time to better effect.

At another table (shown in today’s diagram) Kokish’s wife, Beverly Kraft, passed four hearts and intelligently led the club nine. East must now take both club winners before declarer can use dummy’s second high spade. But East switched to the diamond king at trick two. Curtains for the defense.

The real action on this deal came when the Fourcaudot team was fined a victory point for an incorrect explanation of a conventional bid. That team then was all set to take the last qualifying spot for the knockout stages of the event when they themselves pointed out that the scoring penalty had not been included in the totals. So they lost their qualifying place but gained respect from all the other contestants.

Bid with the aces

South holds:

Answer: Partner was under some pressure over two spades; he may not deliver as much as you would expect. Nonetheless, you are well worth a cue-bid of four spades. With any luck, partner may now be able to take control.