ACES ON BRIDGE

“’For there’s luck in odd numbers,’ says Rory O’moore.”

— Samuel Lover

At the Blue Ribbon Pairs during the 2019 San Francisco Nationals, Ira Hessel took advantage of a 5-1 trump break against him in a slam to scoop up all the matchpoints. But ever the perfectionist, Hessel (playing with Alex Kolesnik) decided that he might have missed the best technical play.

As often happens when one hand is cue-bidding and the other hand is using Key-card, the second-best contract was reached (six no-trump is better than 90%, and indeed, if diamonds do not break, you may recover in six no-trump by finding clubs breaking 3-2).

In six diamonds, Hessel's task was simplified by a heart lead into his tenace.

He won in hand and cashed both top diamonds, then led the diamond jack, which was ducked, and tried to cash the club ace-king.

When East pitched a spade, Hessel ruffed his winner and played the spade king, then a spade to the ace. East still had to follow, so now a club ruff and the heart king and ace saw clubs led for the trump coup.

Ira thought it would have been better, after three rounds of trumps, to play the club ace and ruff a club. If all followed, he could take the heart ace, a club ruff and the spade ace. Only then does he run clubs. If East pitches on the second club, as here, he crosses to dummy in that suit, ruffs a club, crosses back to dummy in the other suit and runs clubs.

Note that if East is 5=2=5=1, all normal lines fail — you would need to play for the trump coup before discovering the bad trump break.

ANSWER: You appear to have too many losers in five clubs, so you might sensibly try three no-trump. Of course, there are no guarantees: If the clubs are not running, you might go down by a lot. Then again, three diamonds may not be making when three no-trump comes home.