ACES ON BRIDGE

We continue our theme of unusual finesses missing the king. South shows a balanced 23-24; North sensibly raises all the way to slam. After West’s passive spade lead, declarer counts nine top tricks. The location of the heart king and the diamond break are both out of declarer’s control, but he can do something to maximize his chances of scoring four heart tricks when the king is onside, either by how he tackles hearts or by attempting a red-suit squeeze. Declarer wins the passive spade lead in dummy and leads a low heart to the queen and five. He should then cross to the club ace to advance a further low heart. He picks off East’s kingdoubleton in hearts without wasting dummy’s jack. Four heart tricks secure the slam. Note that West should drop a high spot under declarer’s queen. South might then decide to continue with the jack on the second round, playing for something like a nineeight doubleton with West. In that case, he could return to dummy and finesse the six on the third round (the percentage play, per the Principle of Restricted Choice). As it was, declarer had no alternative to the winning line.

In a similar deal, if West holds 10-nine-small when declarer has a suit of queen-fourth facing ace-jack-eight-low, West should drop a high card after declarer plays one to the jack. This gives declarer the losing option of playing for 10-nine doubleton offside and leading the queen next. (That may be a better-known “mandatory” false-card situation.)

ANSWER:

I would content myself with a raise to two spades, regardless of whether this promises constructive values. This 4-3-3-3 hand with no intermediates and an unsupported jack is not worth a three-card limit raise. By contrast, with five diamonds to the ace-king and a small doubleton in clubs, you might treat the hand as a limit raise.