DAILY BRIDGE CLUB

You’re today’s North, and South opens three spades as dealer. Assuming he adheres to the textbook requirements — he isn’t a madman who thinks not vulnerable means invulnerable and would preempt with J-x-xx-x — you will bid a slam.

Unless you enjoy speculative grand slams, you want to bid seven spades only if partner has the ace and queen. True, it may be a “five-or-seven” deal; if he has Q J 107654,8,432, Q 2, a diamond opening lead

will beat six spades. But you can’t worry about that.

An ancient convention, the Grand Slam Force, will determine the quality of partner’s suit. Bid 5NT. Partner should bid seven of the agreed trump suit — spades by implication here — with two of the top three honors. (In some auctions, a bid of 5NT may have a different meaning. It may ask partner to choose from among possible slams; it

may be an offer to play at notrump with K-x in an unbid suit.)

Over your 5NT, South duly bids seven spades. West leads the queen of hearts. Declarer has 12 tricks:

seven spades, two hearts, a diamond and two clubs. He must get one more from dummy’s clubs.

Say South takes the ace of hearts, draws trumps and cashes the A-K of clubs. He would usually be safe, but when West discards, South lacks the entries to set up and cash a club.

To guard against a foul club break, South immediately takes the A-K of hearts, pitching a club. He takes the ace of clubs, ruffs a club high, cashes the A-K of trumps and ruffs a club high. Then South can draw trumps and go to the ace of diamonds for the good clubs.