ACES ON BRIDGE

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

-- G.B. Shaw

Today’s deal came up in a Grand National qualifier and was submitted anonymously by one of the defenders, who didn’t want to embarrass the unlucky declarer.

In one room, North-South had stayed out of slam. They took 11 tricks on an unexciting line by simply cashing in the top spades, a couple of diamonds, and all the hearts, then playing a third trump. West got off play with the fourth heart, and the defenders collected a club at the end.

In the other room, North-South reached slam on the auction shown. After a diamond lead, the correct approach for declarer is to win the ace and take both top trumps to find the bad news. Now a heart to dummy for a diamond ruff allows declarer to cash two more top hearts, then ruff another diamond.

If West overruffs, he will have to lead a club away from the king, so he discards -- he must pitch a club, not the 13th heart. Declarer now takes the club finesse and ruffs dummy’s fourth diamond, forcing West to make a second and fatal play.

He has three choices: He can overruff and be endplayed to lead clubs or give a ruff-sluff; he can pitch a heart and then be endplayed with a trump to lead clubs; or he can pitch clubs and bare his club king, letting declarer cash two club winners. This last option is best, though, as declarer might misread the ending by playing West for an original 3-3-2-5 pattern.

ANSWER: What should you expect your partner to have? Not just clubs! He’d open three clubs or bid two clubs over one spade. A passed hand’s jumps facing opening bids or overcalls can’t be natural and weak -you’d do something else at either your first or second turn. I’d advocate playing this jump as spade fit (typically four-card support) and a decent club suit; so now a jump to four spades must be right.