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Gaia – The Ace of Hearts

Gaia has existed in two incarnations. The first, around 2,000BCE, was on the isle of Crete where she was worshiped as the divine embodiment of the Earth. The origin of her name comes from the Greek for Earth that is Ge or Ga.

Being the Mother of the planet must have helped with her maternal duties, as she had three offspring through parthenogenesis, plus another child with Elara and two with Oceanus, five more with Pontus and yet another with Aether. And two with Poseidon, two with Tartarus, twenty-one with Uranus, one with Hephaestus, one with Zeus and a further seven of unknown paternity – forty-six in total.

After a well earned rest of four thousand years, Gaia was reborn as the figurehead of the hypothesis that the planet Earth should be considered as a single organism, where processes interact to form a symbiotic whole.

Given her heritage, it's unsurprising Gaia was looked on as the Mother of the Pack.

Love All, Dealer West		Putto
		♠ A63
		♥ 72
		♦ K753
		♣ A1043
	Alan		Ermintrude
		Gaia
		♠ 42
		♥ AQJ964
		♦ A104
		♣ 62

	West	North	East	South
	Alan	Putto	Ermintrude	Gaia
	Pass	Pass	1♦	1♥
	Dbl1	2♦2	2♠	4♥
	End

1. Negative double showing spades and clubs.
2. Good raise of hearts. (Most of Putto's bids are designed to ensure partner plays the hand.)

Alan opened proceedings with the king of spades.

I'm not sure about Putto's two diamond bid, but it looks like we've landed on our feet. There are four tricks outside trumps, the ace of spades, two diamonds and a club, and as the heart king is likely to be with east, I should manage six trump tricks.

And yet I sense a frisson of electricity coming off my opponents. Alan in particular appears to be taking a deal of interest in the hand. I wonder why that is?

Let's have a think… Counting points, partner and I have eleven each, that's twenty-two, leaving eighteen for East-West. West's lead of the king promises the queen so that leaves thirteen for Ernie's opening bid. Alan might have a jack or possibly a queen more, but Ernie will have the remaining honour cards.

East-West are playing a weak no-trump, which suggests Ernie has an unbalanced hand for her one diamond opening. If she had five diamonds Alan might have led his singleton, especially as he should have some useless small trumps. So I'm tempted to place Ernie with four or six diamonds, and if I had to chose, I'd go with four.

Why four and not six? Instinct, female intuition, a hunch… sometimes I've no idea where the clues comes from, on a subliminal level they just pop into my head. But in this case I noticed Ernie didn't dwell over her final pass and if her hand shape was 6421 she might have taken a moment to consider a sacrifice in four spades.

Assuming I'm right and Ernie has a 4441 hand with a singleton king of hearts there'll be a loser in each suit, which doesn't bode well. The heart and spade losers are inescapable so I have to avoid losing two minor tricks.

Since I'm presuming East's 4-4 in the minors there might be a chance. Say I duck a club, then later play to the ace and ruff a club to leave Ernie in control of the suit, when the last trump's played and I discard a diamond from table Ernie will be squeezed.

		♠ ---
		♥ ---
		♦ K75
		♣ 10
	♠ x		♠ ---
	♥ 10		♥ ---
	♦ xx		♦ QJx
	♣ ---		♣ K
		♠ ---
		♥ Q
		♦ A104
		♣ ---

Time to mentally play the hand through… I'll duck the first trick as a switch to another suit won't do me any harm. Then take the second spade and, assuming Ernie has the singleton king of hearts, draw trumps in four rounds, losing the last round to West. He'll probably play a third spade which I can ruff.

Then I'll duck the club and… Skeleton^*! They'll force me to use my last trump by playing another spade. The critical point of the hand is I must ruff a club, to "isolate the menace" as they say, which I can't do if they force me to ruff two spades.

So how about ducking a club at trick three? No, that's no good. East/West just play spades every turn and we arrive at the same position.

What's to be done? I think I spot a solution, I'll allow Ernie to win the first round of trumps and not take the trick with my name card - the Ace of Hearts.

The sequence is, duck the first spade, win the second, play a heart from table and duck if Ernie hops up with the king, ruff the spade continuation at trick four and then concede a club trick – reaching this position with either opponent on lead.

		♠ ---
		♥ 7
		♦ K753
		♣ A104
	♠ x		♠ x
	♥ 1085		♥ ---
	♦ xx		♦ QJxx
	♣ xx		♣ KQx
		♠ ---
		♥ AQJ9
		♦ A104
		♣ 6

The critical difference is, East/West cannot play spades as that gives me a ruff and discard. A trump or club leads to the simple squeeze and if they play a diamond there's a different squeeze that lands the contract.

		♠ ---
		♥ ---
		♦ K5
		♣ A103
	♠ x		♠ ---
	♥ 10		♥ ---
	♦ x		♦ Qx
	♣ xx		♣ KQx
		♠ ---
		♥ A9
		♦ 104
		♣ 6

When I draw West's last trump and throw a diamond from dummy Ernie will have no good discard.

The board played out as Gaia predicted and the heart clan scored a useful game swing. Putto later told how wonderful it was to watch an expert at work. He explained how Gaia thought for five minutes before playing the three of spades then played the rest of her cards with the even tempo of a metronome.

The full deal:

		Putto
		♠ A63
		♥ 72
		♦ K753
		♣ A1043
	Alan		Ermintrude
	♠ KQ108		♠ J975
	♥ 10853		♥ K
	♦ 92		♦ QJ86
	♣ 985		♣ KQJ7
		Gaia
		♠ 42
		♥ AQJ964
		♦ A104
		♣ 62

* As a rule the Pack do not resort to bad language but the expletive "Skeleton" is frequently heard. The etymology of the expression is unclear, though there is a suggestion its origin can be traced to the phrase "Skeleton in the cupboard".