ACES On Bridge

“Life is the game that must be played.”

— Edwin Arlington Robinson

When South heard his partner invite slam, his call of five no-trump was intended to offer a choice of slams. Even at matchpoint pairs, maybe North should have bid six clubs to look for a 4-4 minor-suit fit. That contract would be easy to bring home today, but North was worried that facing king-jack-third or king-queen-third of spades, six clubs would go down on a spade ruff, so the inferior slam was reached.

After a spade lead to East’s jack, South had to recover from his partner’s indelicate bidding. He ducked the spade lead and won the next, then played three rounds of clubs, leaving himself an entry to his hand in that suit. Next came the three top diamonds, and when East followed to all six of those leads, that player was marked with a singleton heart.

So South cashed the heart queen and led the nine from hand. When West followed small (knowing if he covered that declarer would have crossed back to hand by leading to his club winner, then taken the heart finesse on the third round), South let the nine run and claimed his contract.

For the record, even if the count had not produced such a definitive answer (say, if East appeared to have a doubleton heart), it would be right to lead the nine to the king, then cross back to the heart queen and finesse if East had produced the jack or 10 on the second round of the suit.