ACES ON BRIDGE

At the Dyspeptics Club, East and West are used to defending against high-level contracts with South at the helm. They are aware that he will often fail to give his contract his best shot, but on this occasion, it was East who missed his chance. All credit to South, though, for putting the opponents under pressure. After West did his best to put a fly in the opponents’ ointment, North offered his partner a chance to bid slam, and nothing could hold South back after that. In six spades, South won the top heart lead, cashed the spade king, led a trump to the ace and ruffed a heart. Then he cashed the three top diamonds, East discarding a heart, and ruffed the fourth diamond while East discarded a second heart. Now, after considerable thought, South came to the right conclusion when he exited with a trump. East was reduced to four clubs only, and when he returned a low club, South played low, claiming the balance when West was forced to put up his queen. East should have realized that his only chance to beat the hand was to find his partner with either the king or queen of clubs. Whichever West might have, there is no need to keep all four clubs. If East discards a small club on the fourth diamond, then he will be able to exit with a heart after winning the third trump. Now declarer will have had to guess to drop the doubleton club queen to make his slam — and there is no apparent reason to do that. ANSWER: In response to your Jacoby twono-trump call, showing a game-forcing spade hand, partner’s three-diamond call showed shortness.Your hand is worth cooperating in, but not initiating, a slam-try now. Your best bet is to bid three spades, to let partner sign off in game or cue-bid if appropriate. Incidentally, you might cue-bid four clubs with ace-queen-third of that suit, instead of your actual holding. If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, email him at