ACES ON BRIDGE

“A man of action forced into a state of thought is unhappy until he can get out of it.” — John Galsworthy

Place yourself in the South chair for today’s deal and try to bring home your slam.

After partner’s Jacoby two-no-trump response, you show short diamonds and then jump to five spades to emphasize good trumps but have nothing else to say. North can see that his doubletons will prove useful, so he bids the slam.

When West tables the heart five, you can see two potential losers in the rounded suits. A successful club finesse would see you home, as you could just draw trumps, take one ruff in dummy and take a pitch on the diamonds. You need not rely on this, though.You should try to combine your chances in the minor suits by playing on diamonds first, ruffing out the opponents’ winners on a 4-3 break.

You take the heart ace, draw trumps in two rounds and then cash the diamond ace-king to pitch a club. Discarding a heart would be a bad move because you lack the entries to dummy to pitch the long diamond without depleting dummy of trumps in the process. By keeping your hearts in hand, you retain the option of ruffing a heart to gain an entry. You then ruff a diamond, both defenders following, and concede a heart. East wins and shifts to a club, but you know better than to finesse. You grab the ace, ruff a heart to dummy, ruff another diamond, return to dummy with a trump and pitch your club queen on the 13th diamond, making your slam even with the club king offside.

Had diamonds failed to break, you would have needed the club finesse.

ANSWER: A simple overcall of three spades shows a good hand, so there is no need to do more. A jump to four spades might be this hand with an extra trump, while doubling and then bidding spades would need an extra trick on the side.

If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, email him at bobbywolff@mindspring.com