ACES ON BRIDGE

“But, gracious Lord, whate’er shall be,

Don’t let anyone bomb me.” — John Betjeman

In a Stayman auction after a twono-trump opener, responder often wants to agree the major in a forcing way. Bidding three of the other major (or four hearts over three spades) does the trick. This agreement led to South declaring six hearts today, after asking about key-cards.

On the lead of the diamond queen, declarer planned to ruff two diamonds in dummy and pitch his club on dummy’s spades. Then, he would not have to rely on a club finesse. The diamond ruffs would have to be taken before drawing trumps, of course.

Declarer won the lead and ruffed a diamond, conserving his diamond king to reduce the risk of an overruff. He then led a heart to the queen. If West had taken this and returned, say, a trump, declarer would have won in dummy, crossed to a spade, ruffed another diamond and reentered his hand with the club ace to draw trumps.

However, West knew that if his partner had jack-third of hearts, declarer was surely doomed anyway; if South took another diamond ruff, the heart king would now be bare. Moreover, East might have split his heart honors from jack-10-low. Witness the effect of West’s counterintuitive duck of the heart ace. Declarer ruffed another diamond and then played the heart king, but West won that and led a fourth diamond for his partner to ruff.

A psychic South could have made his slam by playing a second trump before ruffing another diamond, but that would have looked silly if West had the same hand with three trumps and could kill the second ruff.

ANSWER: If your hand were balanced, you would bid three hearts, but you have too much for that here. Bid four diamonds, a splinter showing short diamonds and four hearts. Note that some people use the cheapest double-jump (three spades over one heart or three no-trump over one spade) to show an unspecified splinter with these values. For more, see: Slam Bidding: Limiting your hand with a splinter, at bridgewinners.com.