ACES ON BRIDGE
South had a problem trying to decide how high to go here. His partner had signed off on his third turn, but when North showed a spade control by raising four spades to five spades, suggesting the king, South made a grand slam try. When North signed off, South accepted his decision. North would surely have accepted the try if his spade jack were the queen.
As it was, we have all been in worse grand slams than this, and South took his eye off the ball after a club lead. He won, drew trumps, and laid down the spade ace, uttering an indelicate expletive under his breath when West showed out. There was no longer any way to make the contract,
sincestripof spades. surrenderingout declarerthe minors could controlwithoutnot In fact,a sure-tricksix hearts problembecomes once the opening lead is not ruffed. Can you see how? At trick two, declarer draws trumps with the heart ace and king, cashes the diamond ace, and next takes his remaining club winner. Then he makes the crucial play of a spade to the king.
If West had followed suit, declarer could claim his contract, losing just one spade trick at most. When West shows out, South wins the spade king, ruffs dummy’s remaining diamond, then ducks a spade. With declarer’s minors out of the way, East must now either lead away from his spade queen or give a ruff-and-discard. Either way, declarer has 12 tricks.
ANSWER: Raise to three clubs, as much to keep the opponents quiet as to make a real try for game. Here, the fact that you raise partner’s suit, rather than making a stronger try via a cue-bid, should indicate to your partner that you have more of a courtesy raise than a really strong hand.