ACES ON BRIDGE

Opening Lead: Diamond king

Today’s hand demonstrates the value of planning ahead. When North upgraded his hand to a strong no-trump, South took a practical shot by jumping to six clubs and could count 11 top tricks after the diamond lead. Rather than relying solely on the spade finesse, he won the diamond ace, throwing a spade, then ruffed a diamond. Entries permitting, he planned to ruff out the suit on a 4-4 split.

Next came a low club to the 10 — if it had held, he would have ruffed another diamond. However, East won and returned a trump, so South crossed to the heart ace, cashed the heart king and ruffed another diamond, felling East’s jack. That served to isolate the diamond guard in West’s hand, and as it turned out, East had complete control of hearts.

Following general principles now, South ran his remaining trumps. On the final one, he released dummy’s last diamond to keep dummy’s heart 10, in a threecard ending in which West had already been forced to pitch a spade to keep his diamond queen. East correctly came down to one heart honor and two spades.

Declarer now played a spade to the king and another spade. When East followed with the 10, South had to decide whether West had started with 2=4=5=2 shape or his actual hand. Declarer had little to go on, but since experts prefer squeezes to finesses, he dropped the spade queen and made his slam.

This ending would not have worked without that diamond ruff at trick one or two.

ANSWER: Bid two hearts. Get your six-card suit in while you can do so cheaply. A negative double would hardly get the nature of your hand across. A free bid of two hearts is only a small stretch in terms of high cards. It does not guarantee a second call here, facing any minimum action by your partner. It is better to overbid by a jack or so than to misrepresent your hand and risk never getting to show it.