aceS on bridge

“Bohemia is nothing more than the little country in which you do not live. If you try to obtain citizenship in it, at once the court and retinue pack the royal archives and treasure and move away beyond the hills.”

-- O. Henry

Today’s deal is a tester. Against your slam of six spades West leads a trump -- which certainly feels like a good start for the defenders, though in fact a low heart lead would have been fatal. With one diamond and six spade tricks, you need to score all five of your clubs, and that simply requires 4-3 clubs. But can you improve on those chances?

The answer is yes, but the play must be precise. Win the spade queen, and when both opponents follow, you lead a diamond to the ace, a club to the ace, and take a diamond ruff. This is followed by a low club ruff (do NOT cash the club king) and the sight of the club jack should alert you to the possibilities of a bad break in that suit.

A diamond ruff, and a low club ruff disclose the bad news. A diamond ruff high and the spade ace reduces everyone to four cards. You have a trump, a heart and the K-10 of clubs, dummy and West have four hearts, and East is down to the doubleton heart ace and the guarded club queen. On the last trump if East pitches a club, you cash two winners; if he throws a small heart away, you lead a heart and endplay him. And if he pitches his heart ace, you lead a heart to the nine and claim, whoever wins the trick!

ANSWER: Three clubs here is a forcing call, asking you to assess your suitability for the suit game or no-trump. Your hand is minimum with no diamond stop so a simple rebid of three spades seems best to me. With ace-fourth of diamonds and a singleton club, a three-diamond bid would make sense, but not here.