ACES ON BRIDGE

If West had led the unbid suit, today’s slam would have failed in double-quick time. On the chosen lead of the club 10, however, East won with the club king and helpfully switched to a diamond. After winning in dummy, declarer led a spade to his king, catching the seven from West. All things being equal, declarer would have played West for the spade length because he could then afford to ruff a club in hand, but the fall of the spade seven suggested East had the trump length.

So declarer led a spade to the ace, West pitching a discouraging heart. It was no longer possible to ruff a club in the South hand, and it seemed as though declarer would need the heart finesse to work, but South was not prepared to give up without a fight. If he trusted West’s carding, the heart king would be offside. Moreover, he would need to play a criss-cross squeeze, deliberately keeping his two menaces blocked so he could cross from hand to hand.

The spade ace was followed by the marked spade finesse, then the spade queen. Declarer then cashed dummy’s diamond queen followed by his ace and king, shedding the heart nine from dummy. East could pitch a heart on the third diamond, but the fourth doomed him. A club discard would see declarer unblock the club queen, while declarer would cash the heart ace first if East bared his king.

A club return from East at trick two would have attacked the entries for the squeeze to defeat the slam as the cards lay.

ANSWER: There is a real possibility that this deal belongs to the opponents. Jump to four hearts to consume all of their bidding space. This call should be played as purely preemptive. With the same hand but (for example) ace-king third of clubs, some play a jump to three no-trump to suggest a shapely raise to game with a trick and a half or so on defense.