ACES ON BRIDGE

Splinter bids in response to major-suit opening bids help a partnership determine whether they are in the slam zone and whether their cards fit. One style is to play that responder’s double jumps in a new suit are limited by the failure to use the Jacoby two no-trump. Another style says that a jump like one heart - three spades shows an unspecified splinter in the range 10-13 (over which opener can ask or sign off), while the direct jump shows a full opener, and one heart - three no-trump shows the equivalent splinter in spades.

In today’s deal, North-South reached slam after North showed two key-cards and the equivalent of the trump queen. West looked no further than his spade sequence. How would you plan the play to avoid needing to rely on a favorable lie of the opponents’ cards?

The answer is to win the spade ace and ruff a spade high, then play the diamond ace and ruff a diamond. Now ruff a spade high, ruff a second diamond high, draw trumps and lead a club from dummy, planning to cover whatever East plays. If East plays low, you put in the nine and force West to lead back a club or give a ruff-sluff. If East puts up the 10, you play the queen, and when West wins his king, he is faced with the same unpalatable alternatives.

Note that this play requires both diamonds and spades to be fully extracted and trumps drawn before the first club play. The essence of an elimination is to remove as many of the defenders’ exit cards as you can.

ANSWER: I’m unimaginative here; I lead my long suit and hope we can somehow develop it. With honor-third in diamonds, I might try that suit, but three small requires my partner to have way too much in the suit for it to be a success. Either red suit might work, or even a passive lead, but I prefer to lead what is in front of my face. If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, email him at