ACES ON BRIDGE

Good management is the art of making problems so interesting and their solutions so constructive that everyone wants to get to work and deal with them. — Paul Hawken

In today’s deal as South, when you hear your partner raise you to four hearts, you cannot be sure if he has a real hand, in which case you might be cold for a grand slam, or nothing but some heart support, when you might find yourself struggling at the five-level.

The secret here is not to take charge and tell your partner what he has, but to cue-bid and consult your partner as to whether he might be interested in slam. Once you get a cue-bid from your partner, you can try for the moon, but you will not get any further cooperation today. In fact, when dummy comes down in six hearts, the duplication of values and mirror image of the North-South hands makes even the small slam far less attractive than you might have imagined.

Fortunately, the bad breaks in both black suits give you a blueprint to bringing home an unlikely 12th trick. You win the spade lead, draw trumps in one round, and lead the diamond jack from hand in case you can tempt West to cover. When West plays low, you win the king and next take your best percentage chance of finessing in diamonds to pitch a club from dummy on the third diamond. Now play the ace and another club, hoping it will be East who must win the trick.

Today you are in luck. When East takes the second round of clubs, he must return a minor suit and give you a ruffsluff. That lets you pitch your spade loser from hand.

ANSWER: Your partner’s somewhat unexpected jump to four clubs sets hearts as trump and suggests he is interested in slam with a club control — typically based on shortage. You can cue-bid four diamonds in return. (The fact that this is a second-round, not first-round, control is not critical.) You will pass a reversion to four hearts next, of course.