ACES ON BRIDGE

In statesmanship get the formalities right, never mind about the moralities.

— Mark Twain

When South shows 22-24, North does not hesitate to jump to seven no-trump — particularly since he will not have to play it himself.

Despite the spade wastage, the North-South cards fit reasonably. When dummy comes down, South sees that all he needs to do is find four diamond tricks to bring home the grand slam. He must therefore investigate the side suits to plan his play in diamonds.

South wins the king in hand and begins by running clubs, finding West with three clubs. West discards a spade on the fourth club; East gets rid of two spades. It begins to look as though East started with four or five spades, but before finalizing his plan, South runs the hearts.

When East drops the heart 10 on the third round, it looks as though West started with four hearts and East with only three, though East might be fooling, of course. South leads his second spade, and both opponents follow. Since neither the

10 nor the nine has yet appeared, South should assume that West has at least the 10 for his opening lead of the jack.

Weighing up all the evidence, it seems certain that West started with at least four spades, at least three hearts and the three known clubs. At most, therefore, West can have three diamonds — but he may have fewer.

South can thus ensure his slam by taking dummy’s top diamonds first. When West shows out at the 11th trick, South takes the marked finesse through East to make his grand slam.

ANSWER: On blind auctions, it is easy to lead from real length or from sequences. If you can’t do either, you want to find your partner if you are weak, or try to avoid blowing tricks if you have nothing attractive to lead. Leading from ace-third is out. Of the two four-card suits, I prefer almost anything to leading from ace-fourth. A small diamond is the least of all evils, but a doubleton club is not completely absurd.