We doubt that you could find an American expert who would open two hearts on the East hand, but this deal was played recently in Australia, where men are men and their opponents are aware of it. They also drink more beer and wine than we do and that will sometimes affect their bidding decisions in evening games.
West might have shifted to the king of hearts at trick two, but he had played with East before and shifted to the king of diamonds instead. He knew East held at least four diamonds and he was catering to a possible singleton queen in the South hand. After winning with dummy’s ace of diamonds, most players would have drawn the last trump and taken the heart finesse through East, confident of success. They would then have asked East to never darken their doorstep again.
South, however, was Australian expert Warren Lazer, who had played against East before. Lazer ruffed a diamond at trick three, crossed back to dummy with the king of clubs, drawing the missing trump, and ruffed dummy’s last diamond. Lazer went back to dummy with the queen of clubs and finally took the heart finesse. West won with his singleton king, but he had to lead a spade into South’s ace-queen or yield a ruff-sluff. 11 tricks for Lazer after a well-played hand!
