ACES ON BRIDGE

*Asking for trump queen Opening Lead: Spade six

“In real life, strategy is actually very straightforward.You pick a general direction and implement like hell.”

— Jack Welch

This deal requires some foresight on declarer’s part. Can you find the best play?

South’s jump to three hearts shows a solid holding (or semisolid, missing the ace or king) and sets trump.

North must start with a three-spade cuebid because South might be lacking a club control. South’s pass of the double of three spades denies a control. But North redoubles to denote first-round control, prompting South to show his club control. North then drives to a slam via Roman Key-card Blackwood. When South shows no side king, North subsides in six hearts and West obediently leads a spade.

South would go down if he took the spade finesse;

East would win and return the spade jack to force out dummy’s ace. But South desperately wants to save the spade ace as a late entry to dummy. He can accomplish this by playing low from dummy at trick one. East can win but can no longer safely return a spade, so he shifts to a club. South steps up with the ace, planning to set up dummy’s diamonds to discard the other club. He need not risk the diamond finesse, preferring to take two ruffs to set up the suit when it splits no worse than 4-2.

South plays a top trump from hand, takes the top diamonds and ruffs a diamond with a high trump. Dummy’s invaluable heart eight is the entry for another diamond ruff, which sets up the long diamond. South can now draw trumps and return to dummy with the spade ace to cash the last diamond. ANSWER: Open one heart. You have too much for a preempt of four hearts, which would typically represent a much weaker hand, not a full opener with extras. A fourheart preempt works fine when the goal is to silence the opponents, but here your side could easily have 12 or even 13 top tricks. If the club ace were the king, a preempt would be slightly more attractive.