AceS On briDge

“How various his employments, whom the world calls idle.”

— William Cowper

When a partnership has the Jacoby two no-trump available for slam-interested raises of partner’s major, the initial splinter jump tends to need partner to have real extras — or a perfect fit — to consider slam. In this case, when North jumps to four hearts (a splinter bid for this pair, not a natural jump), South has a highly suitable heart holding but a dead minimum, so he signs off in game.

On the lead of the heart queen, South should try to develop dummy’s clubs, but he can still fall back on a successful finesse in diamonds. So, he wins the first trick with the heart ace and draws trumps, ending in dummy.

South begins the clubs by leading toward the king, on which East alertly unblocks his jack. South takes his king, then leads a low club toward dummy. Since one club trick must be lost no matter what happens, declarer hopes to duck this trick to East. But whether he wins or ducks the second club, West will get in with his clubs and must then lead the diamond queen. He needs to hope his partner has the A-J10, or that declarer will be unable to guess what to do with the cards lying as they do today.

If South ducks the queen (playing West for the Q-J-9), he is done for. But he should not do that, since West would probably have led a diamond at trick one with that holding.

If South covers the queen, East should take his ace and return a low diamond. I don’t envy declarer his decision now!

ANSWER: Your partner has shown real extras, typically with two or three clubs and at most half a stopper in clubs (or he might have bid no-trump himself). You have too much to sign off in three diamonds but neither your hearts nor spades are really good enough to introduce. I think I prefer a threeheart call to bidding three notrump, but it is close.