AceS On briDge

“Oh don’t the days seem sad and long

When all goes right and nothing goes wrong?”

— W. S. Gilbert

In today’s auction, after spades were agreed, South’s four-heart call was a cue-bid. North inquired about key-cards, and his five-no-trump call confirmed possession of them all. South then showed the heart king by bidding that suit, but North could infer South’s hearts weren’t solid (or he would already have bid the grand slam), so he signed off in six spades.

West led the club queen, taken in dummy. Declarer cashed the heart ace, then the trump ace. After both opponents followed, declarer was on the point of playing the heart king when he foresaw the problems that might arise from a bad heart break. Revising his plan, he continued instead with a low heart. West took this with the jack and, in response to East’s discard, exited with a diamond, won by South’s ace.

Having registered East’s shortage in hearts, declarer asked himself what could be done if East had also started with four trumps headed by the 10. Demonstrating that this problem could be overcome, he called for dummy’s trump nine and overtook it with his jack. Next, after ruffing a heart with dummy’s trump queen, he led the spade five and simply covered East’s card. After drawing the last trump, South claimed the balance — making four trumps, four hearts, a heart ruff and three tricks in the minors.

Declarer’s line wasn’t foolproof against 3-2 hearts with West having the length, plus a bad trump break, but it covered almost all the bases that could be covered.

ANSWER: You have shown diamonds and spades, a club stopper and no more than two hearts. Following that, your partner again suggested playing hearts; you should not only accept his suggestion, but bid four clubs. This is a cue-bid for hearts in case your partner has real slam interest, because your hand is about as suitable as possible for slam, in context.