AceS On briDge

“Give all thou canst; high Heaven rejects the lore Of nicely calculated less or more.” -- William Wordsworth

Today’s deal illustrates a subtle point of spot-card reading after North-South had done well in getting to their top spot.

North was playing the conventional style referred to as Kokish (or Birthright), where a direct rebid of two no-trump would have been non-forcing, suggesting 22 to 24 or so. But he could show a very strong balanced hand by a two-step process after his two-club opener. His precise sequence showed 28 to 30, and now South gambled that a sixcard suit opposite might be all that was needed to make slam.

In six diamonds, South received an unreadable heart spot lead, the four, which could have been from length or shortage. It would have been very easy to put all the eggs in one basket of expecting diamonds to split, by laying down the diamond ace. That way lies disaster, today. But declarer did better when he led a low trump from dummy at trick two.

West won the trick, and declarer’s first significant clue came when East pitched the spade six. West shifted to a spade, and now declarer had to decide how to get to hand to take the trump finesse. He guessed well when he decided West had heart length and spade shortage. Accordingly, he won the spade ace, cashed the two top heart winners to pitch a spade, then ruffed a spade to hand. Once this stood up, the hand was over. South could draw trumps with the aid of the finesse and pitch a club on dummy’s remaining spade winner.

ANSWER: You may have only a five-count, but your hand looks to have enough extra shape in terms of club fit and spade length to be worth a shot at game. Spades will be easier to make than clubs, even if you have a 4-4 fit, so I would simply jump to four spades now. In this auction, unless playing Wolff signoff, all continuations are game-forcing, by the way.