Evening star., 1950-05-04

PdSS cluDS DDI. OldnOQQS
Pass Pass Dbl. Pass
Pass Pass
Opening lead, ace of spades.
Picking of a singleton king has
q tendency to convert a bridge
player into a fisherman. He never
seems to weary of retelling his
neighbors the details of his bril-
liant exploit. South in. today's
hand furnished, in addition, q free
supplement, setting forth in COM
plete sequence the mental pro-
cesses leading up to his coup, and,
since they hang together rather
well, they are submitted to the
reader in full.
East and West permitted them
selves to be outfought by the op-
position in a keenly waged bidding
battle. West gave East every in
ducement to carry on by making
a forcing pass of the five-diamond
bid, but East, unduly influenced
by his high-card holding, and not
sufficiently alert to the freakish-
ness of the other holdings at the
table, decided to play for the pen
atty instead of going on to five
spades.
West opened the spade ace,
which was ruffed in dummy. In the
hope of ruffing out his remaining
spade, declarer attempted to sneak
into his hand by leading low club
off dummy, but East rushed in
with the ace, upon which South
falsecarded the jack. With the in
tention of preventing a spade ruff
in dummy, East returned the three
of diamonds. At this point de-
clarer embarked upon an involved
series of calculations, in a effort
to obtain a tentative count of the
hand.
The lead of the ace of spades,
presumably marked East with the
king, because West, holding both
honors, would have led the king.
East has already shown up with
the ace of clubs and presumably
held substantial values in hearts,
which can be deduced from his
double of the nonvulnerable four
heart bid. This places him with
sufficient high-card strength to
justify his overbidding the game
on his first response. In other
words, there was no reason to
place him with the king of dia-
monds though he doubled the final
contract.
He then mulled over the prob
able distribution in the adverse
hands. East probably holds only
four spades, for with five of them
he would not have, been inclined
to double the four-heart bid. This
assigns a seven-card suit to West.
1t was unlikely that West held a
singleton club, else he would have
led it in preference to the ace of
spades This marks West with at
least two clubs. It is clear, too,
that West had more than one
heart, for if he had a singleton,
East would have a good five-card
heart suit and would no doubt
have shown it, inaSmuch as he was
mildly interested in a slam.
Tentatively, therefore, West is
marked with seven spades, two or
three clubs, two or three hearts,
and, therefore, probably no more
than one diamond. On this basis
declarer went up with the ace and,
when Vests king fell, declarer
raked in the balance of the tricks,
fulfilling contract with an over
trick.
The fact that West has a single
ton diamond offers no inducement
to go up with the ace, for, on a
percentage basis, the odds are
against the singleton being specifi-
cally the king. But the point is
that if Vests singleton is a low
card, it will mean that East had
originally the king twice guarded
and it was not subject to capture.
1t may be argued, What if it
should prove that West had two
diamonds and that East had the
king and one?" In that case, the
entire suit could be picked up by
finessing. The answer is to be
found in East's qualities as a player
If East had the king and one
other diamond, he could have de-
feated the contract by cashing the
ace of hearts and then forcing
dummy to ruff a spade. His king
of trumps could not then be cap
tured. It should be presumed
therefore, that East did not hold
the king of diamonds. It seems
very involved, but it sounds all
right to us.