ACES ON BRIDGE

This deal dates from a time when North was able to bid clubs naturally at his second turn. These days, some would play a three-club call as showing a second negative, with two no-trump natural.

The double of the Blackwood response doesn’t affect South’s plans. In Key-card Blackwood, the first step that isn’t a signoff asks for the trump queen. When North denies it, South settles for the small slam. South wins the opening diamond lead and plans to cash the spade ace and king, then pitch the diamond loser on the hearts. When the first round of trumps draws the jack from West, this does not have to be a true card (West might have one, two or even three trumps), but in almost all eventualities, the spades can probably wait. Declarer takes two top hearts to pitch dummy’s diamond loser, and East ruffs in.

He plays back a diamond, which declarer ruffs in dummy, then pitches his last diamond on the club ace. When he leads the spade 10 from dummy, East follows low, and declarer is faced with a guess in trump. Should he play for West to have begun with the bare spade jack or the doubleton queen-jack? Since West appears to have three or four diamonds and five hearts, while East has five or six cards in those two suits, it feels right to me to finesse. And the percentages indicate that too (reinforced by the Principle of Restricted Choice, which I’ll discuss later this month). After finessing in spades, declarer can draw trumps and claim the rest.