Aces on bridge

“It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.”

— Sherlock Holmes

In most suit contracts, declarer hastens to draw trumps, to keep his winners from being ruffed away. But there are many exceptions to the rule: a cross-ruff, for example. Today’s deal shows another reason for delaying play in the trump suit.

On this deal from the 1997 Venice Cup, Tobi Sokolow counted out her opponents’ hands by testing the plain suits in order to work out how to tackle trump correctly.

Sokolow ended up in four hearts after West had overcalled in diamonds. West led a top spade; Sokolow ducked, then won the continuation, noting East’s highlow to show encouragement in the suit. A diamond toward the king lost to the ace. Ruffing the spade return, declarer cashed the diamond queen and trumped her last diamond with the eight as East followed suit.

Returning to hand with the club king, she followed with a second club toward dummy’s ace, on which West showed out. Sokolow now decided that West held three spades rather than four, based on the play in the suit thus far. West was known to have a singleton club and was likely to have six diamonds rather than five; otherwise, her vulnerable overcall, missing the king and queen, would have been extremely sporting. East’s carding in diamonds had also suggested an odd number. Since West had three spades, six diamonds and one club, that strongly suggested three hearts in West’s hand.

So Sokolow cashed her heart ace, then successfully finessed West for the queen to bring home her contract.

ANSWER: It’s time for a little science: You do not have enough to drive to slam, and a splinter jump to five diamonds is misleading. I suggest that after Stayman finds a fit, you bid the other major as an artificial call, setting the shown major (hearts) as trump and indicating slam interest. Let partner take it from there.