ACES ON BRIDGE

Not only is there an art in knowing a thing, but also a certain art in teaching it. — Cicero

A basic knowledge of suit combinations will always be useful, and today’s deal has points of interest in both the bidding and the play.

Let’s look at the bidding first. At matchpoint pairs, South’s jump to six no-trump is unsubtle but understandable. But since a grand slam in clubs could be cold if North’s heart queen were the king (and as it is, six clubs is a better spot than six no-trump), South should have explored further by bidding four clubs over three no-trump, then using Blackwood.

In six no-trump, South wins the spade lead and can count 11 top tricks. The simplest play for the contract is the heart finesse; can South do better? Yes, he can. If he takes the finesse and it loses, he is almost out of chances unless there is a somewhat unlikely squeeze, with the same hand guarding the third round of hearts and diamonds.

A better play is to lead a heart to the nine; today, that forces the king, and declarer is home free. But if the nine loses to the 10 or jack, declarer then wins the return and cashes all his clubs, then spades. One defender may err by keeping spades and unguarding diamonds, but even if this doesn’t happen, you can reduce to a two-card ending with the diamond nine and a heart in hand and the ace-queen of hearts in dummy. Unless there are strong indications to the contrary, declarer will fall back on the heart finesse, but he will certainly have made his opponents’ task more difficult.