ACES ON BRIDGE

“Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.”

Edgar Allan Poe

Do not worry about how to bid the South cards. Chances are, you’ll get a hand of this strength about once every 10 years (assuming you play two sessions of bridge a day, every day of the week).

South receives negative responses from North on his first three turns. He then has to decide whether to risk the five-level in search of a slam. When he does, North has — in context — a pretty good hand with a guaranteed working honor and three trumps, enough to bid on.

To make his slam, South must try to avoid the loss of two spade tricks, which is simple enough if each opponent has three spades. If spades break 4-2, however, South must play with some care. The key is to draw only one round of trumps before conceding a spade. At that point, the defenders should exit in a minor, and now declarer draws a second round of trumps and tests spades.

South must hope that the player with four spades also has three or more trumps. Then South will be able to ruff his last spade in dummy without being over-ruffed.

If declarer were to draw two rounds of trumps before giving up a spade, East would return a third trump to kill the spade ruff in dummy. But also note that if South does not draw two rounds of trumps, instead cashing one or two top spades before giving up a spade, then East can lead another spade and allow West to ruff. Either way, South would go down.

ANSWER: Although it is arguable that a call of two of a minor by your partner might be trying to improve the contract, a two-heart bid shows real extras. He would pass with five hearts and no extras. You have just enough extras to bid, but your cards are so soft that maybe a raise to three hearts should suffice. Let partner try to get back to three no-trump if he wants to.