ACES ON BRIDGE

“For early today to my utter dismay, It had vanished away like the dew in the morn.” — Michael Flanders and Donald Swann The modern style is to open a notrump on in-range (and occasionally out-of-range!) hands when balanced or semi-balanced. So, hands may qualify that contain a five-card major, a six-card minor or even a 5-4-2-2 pattern with an awkward rebid or with its values concentrated in the short suits. The most inconvenient hands are those with a five-card minor and a higher suit, though hands with four spades are rarely a problem. South was a purist, though, and opened one heart. When West preempted in spades, North cue-bid three spades to show at least a highcard raise to game. South cue-bid four clubs, letting North drive to slam via the obligatory use of Keycard Blackwood. Plan the play now. Declarer takes the club queen lead in hand and, after drawing trumps in three rounds, eliminates the minors in preparation for an endplay. He can surely see that West has six spades headed by the king for his weak jump overcall — can you see the winning line? South cashes the club king, ruffs a club and plays three rounds of diamonds. He then plays a low spade from both hands. If East is allowed to win, he must give declarer a ruffand-discard, while if West wins, he has an equally unattractive option of leading around to declarer’s spade queen. Either way, the second spade loser vanishes. Note that cashing the spade ace first, or leading a spade to the queen, would allow West to win and safely return a spade. ANSWER: Your partner may not have much spade support, but your hand will surely play much better in spades than hearts. Imagine your partner with a singleton spade, and you can still score five tricks if that is the trump suit, whereas your hand will be worthless in hearts. So bid two spades now.