ACES ON BRIDGE

“I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.” — William Ernest Henley

In today’s deal, North and South disagreed about what South’s three-heart rebid might have suggested. Was it good hearts or doubt about the best game? Be that as it may, South’s slam was a particularly unattractive spot; declarer had to assume a very specific lie of the cards even to give himself a chance to come home.

When West led the heart jack against six diamonds, declarer saw there appeared to be a heart and a club loser. He played low from dummy, and if East had risen with the ace, declarer’s problems would have been solved, as North’s second club could have been discarded on the heart queen.

However, when East defended correctly by ducking the first trick, South won with the queen. He appreciated that East was sure to hold the heart ace, since West was unlikely to have underled it against a slam. His best chance was that East also held the club king, in which case he could be the target of an endplay.

So South set about eliminating the pointed suits. He crossed to the spade ace, then ruffed a spade high. A low diamond to the nine was followed by another spade ruff high. Crossing to the dummy in trumps again, he took the spade king, on which he threw a heart.

Now the stage was set to exit with the heart king, endplaying East. He was forced either to present declarer with a ruff-sluff, whereupon dummy’s second club could be discarded, or to play a club, allowing dummy’s queen to score.

ANSWER: Your partner’s rebid shows a balanced hand with or without a four-card major. You want to play no-trump if facing a spade stopper, but wouldn’t it be nice to get across the nature of your hand (club support and singleton spade) in one go? You can: Jump to three spades — a splinter-bid since two spades would be natural and forcing — to give partner the choice of playing in either minor or no-trump.