ACES ON BRIDGE
“‘Don’t make the same mistake twice’ seems to indicate three mistakes, doesn’t it? First you make the mistake.Then you make the same mistake.Then you make the same mistake twice. If you simply say,‘Don’t make the same mistake,’ you’ll avoid the first mistake.”
— George Carlin
Facing a two-no-trump opener, many Norths would transfer to spades and follow up with a natural four-heart call. Today’s pair could show both majors with a call of four clubs, letting the eventual fourheart contract be played by the strong hand.
West saw little point in leading dummy’s side suit, and although a trump might protect his spade tricks, it could also give up the whole suit. West therefore opted for the diamond jack, which floated around to declarer’s queen. South counted 10 tricks now — six in the minors and four hearts. He led the heart king from hand (ducked by East), and then continued with a low heart to dummy’s 10, to protect against an overruff on the third round of spades. East smartly held up again, and when declarer led a third trump, East pounced with the ace and shifted to spades. A third-round ruff defeated the game.
When trumps revealed themselves to be 4-1, declarer might have done better to come to hand in clubs and lead a spade up. This would work well on today’s layout, or if West had ace-king-low. If West attempted to give East a spade ruff, declarer could still overruff East. If instead West switched to clubs, declarer could lead another spade up and eventually score 10 tricks.
Perhaps the best line is to lead spades toward the dummy before drawing any trumps. Declarer would then also succeed if East had honor-doubleton in spades, where the aforementioned lines would fail against best defense.
ANSWER: You cannot stop short of game with so much shape. Lacking particular methods, the best description will be a two-heart transfer followed by a game-forcing three hearts. That ought to show at least 5-5 shape since you would bid Stayman with 5-4 in the majors. If partner signs off in three no-trump, you will bid four spades.