ACES ON BRIDGE

“In a minute there is time For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.”

-- T.S. Eliot

At the table, South knew that his partner’s four-club bid would deliver a degree of spade fit and suitability for slam, and he gambled that he would be able to discard diamonds from dummy on his hearts, or that a well-placed queen would give him a finesse for slam.

A casual onlooker might take a cursory glance at today’s deal and remark on the dangers of reaching a grand slam that appears to hinge on a finesse. You would be right in theory, of course, but wrong in practice. The grand slam comes closer to an 85 percent chance if properly handled. With that hint, let’s reassess declarer’s best line on the lead of a top club.

The play is to take the club king with the ace, then ruff a club with the queen, followed by the spade ace, and the spade six to the nine. When trumps behave, as they will do at least two-thirds of the time, you take a second club ruff, then play a heart to the 10, take a third club ruff, and finally lead a diamond to the ace.

At this point, South’s diamond loser can be discarded on the spade jack and the last four tricks are taken with South’s 100 honors in hearts.

This line of play is known as a dummy-reversal, in that by ruffing in the long hand you get six trump tricks where only five had seemed to exist. If trumps break 41, you take the diamond finesse, of course.

ANSWER: It is normally correct to run from one no-trump doubled when you know your side has the minority of high-cards. That is not so here, and with your values in the only suit that the opponents have shown, you have no particular reason to be afraid of any suit. Pass, and allow your partner to decide whether to run or not.