ACES ON BRIDGE

“Government and cooperation are in all things the laws of life; anarchy and competition, the laws of death.”

— John Ruskin

Today's hand comes from Ulrich Auhagen of Germany. South's three-spade overcall is strong. North cue-bids twice, and now South's club control and extra trump persuade him to bid six spades.

Bringing spades in for no losers would land the slam, but the likelihood of queen-third offside is increased by East's weak two. If you have a trump to lose, can anything be done if diamonds are unfriendly?

The best line may be to throw West on lead with his trump. That succeeds on more layouts than you might think. You may be able to isolate the club guard in the West hand for a simple squeeze, but you will need to extract West's heart exit as well. In short, you must enlist West's help to squeeze himself!

You win the heart lead, ruff a heart and cash the spade ace-king. Now you take the club ace, finesse the diamond queen, discard your club loser on the heart king and ruff a club before exiting with a spade. Those who play chess may see resemblances to a helpmate. West now has the choice of immediate concession by playing a diamond, or postponing the evil day by isolating the menace against himself, playing a club so that he will be squeezed at trick 11 on the run of the spades. The key is to ruff dummy's low heart immediately. If you delay, the timing is wrong. You must eliminate West's heart exit, forcing the minor-suit return in the ending.

ANSWER: You certainly have enough hearts to compete with a natural two-heart bid now, but do you have enough points? East's one-heart call, possibly a psychic measure, should not deter you. I like to play a two-heart call here as showing five hearts and invitational values. With less, I double one heart for penalty. That would be my choice now, planning to compete to two hearts at my next turn.