A good trump fit and side winners

Leonard Louis Levinson, author of “The Left-Handed Dictionary,” wrote, “A pessimist sees only the dark side of the clouds, and mopes; a philosopher sees both sides, and shrugs; an optimist doesn’t see the clouds at all — he’s walking on them.”

This week, we have been considering slam deals. Today, look at the South hand. He opens one spade, and partner raises to three spades, a limit raise promising 10-12 support points and at least four-card support. What should South rebid?

Secondly, suppose South ends in six spades, and West leads the diamond 10. What should South do?

When you have a good trump fit, holding a side suit that is a rich source of tricks should make you optimistic. Over three spades, jumping to six spades is not unreasonable. The contract surely has some play and could be laydown. Seven might be on, but you’ll never know for sure.

This diamond-10 lead is really annoying. Given that South has the nine, the 10 is surely a singleton or high from a doubleton. There is no reason to assume that West is falsecarding. (Often, it is right to lead aggressively against a small slam, but cautiously against a grand.) Here, whatever declarer does, he will have to take the first trick with his ace. Then what?

South needs a lot of luck. He plays a club to dummy’s jack and discards a diamond on the heart ace to limit the apparent loss; then he plays a trump. Here, luck is home because West has the ace and does not have another diamond to lead. South will draw trumps, discard dummy’s diamonds on his clubs and crossruff home.