ACES ON BRIDGE
“To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. No great and enduring volume can ever be written on the flea, though many there be who have tried it.”
— Herman Melville
This deal from the European championships when Wales met Serbia and Montenegro shows Mike Tedd (partnering John Salisbury) at his best. In the closed room, the Serbians had lost the spade suit after South passed as dealer, and had stopped in a part-score of two no-trump that had struggled home on a spade lead from West.
The stakes were higher at this table, where Tedd had opened. East doubled for a diamond lead, and West dutifully led the diamond 10. Tedd sensibly withheld the queen and won in hand with the ace. East took the heart queen with his ace and switched to a trump to the nine, 10 and ace.
Tedd unblocked the heart jack, returned to dummy with a trump and threw his losing diamond on the heart king. The bad news was that the suit did not break, but the good news was that West could not ruff. So now declarer ruffed the fourth round of hearts, returned to dummy with a club ruff and led his fifth heart in a position where South, East and North all had one trump left.
East was forced to ruff (or declarer would have 10 tricks on a crossruff). Tedd now discarded a club from hand, and when East exited with the club ace — yes, a small club would have been better — declarer pitched a diamond from dummy, refusing to ruff again. Now East was endplayed. Another club lead would establish a club winner in declarer’s hand, while a diamond lead would be away from the king, after which the diamond queen would be declarer’s 10th trick.
ANSWER: In most styles, this might be a little too much for a four-club splinter bid, which would usually show a minimum raise to game, and having a void rather than a singleton is not ideal for a splinter. Start with a Jacoby two no-trump instead, to agree hearts while setting up a force, and cue-bid clubs later. Finding out if partner has shortness will also be useful to you.