THE ACES ON BRIDGE

“And now the matchless deed’s achieved, Determined, dared, and done.” -- Christopher Smart .....................

Today’s deal features a problem in both the bidding and the play. After West doubles one spade, North redoubles to show a good hand, South rebids two spades to show a minimum hand with six spades, and North can make a splinter raise to four clubs to show a singleton club and spade support. That lets South show his diamond control, and North follows up with Blackwood for aces, then with five no-trump for specific kings. When South shows the heart king, North takes a shot at the spade grand slam, taking the reasonable gamble that his side can take enough tricks from club ruffs in his hand, or that declarer can establish diamonds.

The lead of the club king goes to the ace. Next comes a club ruff, the spade king, the diamond ace, and a diamond ruff.

This is followed by the spade queen, a second diamond ruff, and the spade ace, while the heart two is thrown from dummy. A heart to the queen for a further diamond ruff is followed by the heart king, and dummy is high.

The advantage of following this line of play is that declarer gets to discover whether the diamonds are going to break before he has to discard from dummy on the third top spade. Had East discarded on the third diamond, then the play of the last trump from South’s hand would have squeezed West if he had begun with five diamonds and four hearts.