Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
ACES ON BRIDGE
I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot … your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind.
— William Thomson Although South has only a minimum takeout double, the five-heart call asks him to bid slam with a club control. Holding the ace, he can hardly reject the invitation. With another high card, he might even make a grand slam try rather than re-raising hearts.
The defenders lead the diamond 10 to the ace. With both club and diamond ruffs threatening for the defense, it looks logical enough to draw all the trumps.
When East follows to the heart ace and king, declarer can place him with seven clubs, two hearts and at least one diamond. But what is the rest of his pattern?
The next move is to cash the diamond king. When East shows out, he surely began with precisely 3=2=1=7 shape. Careful! Do not cash the third top diamond! Instead, play the spade ace-king and ruff a spade, then cash the club ace and duck a club. East has no choice but to win and lead away from the club king.You will let a low club run to dummy’s queen, or ruff the king and use the diamond queen as the entry to the club queen.
If East had followed to the second diamond, you would cash the spade aceking next, to get the complete count of his hand. If you find that East began with a singleton spade and three diamonds, you play off the diamond queen and proceed as above, without ruffing a spade loser in dummy, planning to use the spade ruff as the last entry to dummy. You would play in the same way if East had a 2=2=2=7 shape. South
2 NT
3 k
?
ANSWER: This sequence is best played as artificial. (With four spades, North would have bid three or four no-trump; with five spades, he would have transferred.) The call should show slam interest with a heart fit. Your honor location and minimum values are not strong enough for a four-diamond cue-bid. But if you feel too good to sign off in four hearts now, you might use three notrump as artificial here.