Slam bidding, shape controls

Bob Uecker said, “I hit a grand slam off Ron Herbel, and when his manager Herman Franks came out to get him, he was bringing Herbel’s suitcase.”

Many bridge players become cowardly when a slam is in the offing. In an average club game, if you bid and make a slam, you will get a well-above-average score (unless your side has so many points that everyone can do the math).

Look at this deal from a duplicate. Almost every North-South played in four hearts (making with only one overtrick when the trumps broke badly) or four spades (making five or six — see below).

One successful auction is given. After North opened one no-trump, South had the ideal gadget: a three-spade response showing at least 5-5 in the majors and game-forcing values.

Now North, with those three magic major-suit honors, was thinking about a slam — but could the opponents take the first two tricks in diamonds? North control-bid four clubs to express slam interest. South did not have a great hand, but he did have a diamond void. So, he control-bid four diamonds. North jumped to six spades.

How should South have played in six spades after ruffing West’s diamond lead?

The risk was a bad heart break. The correct technique was to draw two rounds of trumps, then to shift to hearts. If that suit had broken 3-2, declarer would have drawn the missing trump and claimed. Here, though, he trumped the third round in the dummy, returned to hand with a diamond ruff, drew West’s last trump and ran the hearts.