aces on bridge

“A schoolboy’s tale, the wonder of an hour!”

— Lord Byron

North’s first response here promises a good suit, so that once he raises spades, the route to slam should be easy enough. After West leads the club queen, you must plan the play.

You could rely on dropping the trump queen in two rounds, but that is only a trifle better than an even-money shot. A better chance is to play on hearts, hoping to set up a long card, while using dummy’s trumps for entries.

After winning the club queen with the ace, cash the heart ace and king, then ruff a heart with the trump king. Next continue with a low trump from hand! West does best to play low, and you win in dummy and continue by ruffing a second heart with the trump ace, because you like the spectacular.

A second low trump from hand sees West win the trump queen and probably exit with a club. After winning this trick with the club king, you draw West’s remaining trump by leading a third low spade to dummy. Since the heart seven has been established, you use it to dispose of your club loser. You make five trumps, three hearts and the ace-king of both minors.

While no line will bring you home if West has four trumps, this approach can succeed when East has four trumps — provided hearts are 3-3. In the latter case, East will have to use one of his trumps to ruff a heart winner; then you will be able to overruff and draw his last trump, ending in dummy to cash the remaining heart winner.

ANSWER: Your partner rates to be relatively short in both majors, so I can see some logic in raising to two clubs as opposed to rebidding one no-trump. Nonetheless, I think the one no-trump call suggests your values nicely, and lets partner rebid two clubs, if appropriate. He surely won’t have six clubs, will he?