ACES ON BRIDGE

“I am the maker of my own fortune.”

-- Tecumseh

In today’s hand, some of my readers may not look past the fact that they themselves would not bid to slam without a cashing ace and the trump king, and not realize that it is not enough to be lucky. Sometimes one must also be good.

When the deal came up in the early stages of a national championship, the expert team that held the North-South cards stopped in five hearts after a keycard auction.

However, the less favored team bid to slam on the auction shown, when South either thought it would be beneath his dignity to ask for aces, or decided to play for a swing.

The opening lead was the spade queen, ducked all around. The spade jack was covered by dummy’s king, and South demonstrated that his team was not just present to fill seats when he ruffed with the heart queen. Then he led a diamond to the ace, ran the heart eight successfully and followed up with the heart 10, underplaying this with his nine. Now it was a simple matter to repeat the heart finesse and draw trumps. Declarer could dispose of his fourth-round diamond loser on dummy’s clubs, and waltz home with 12 tricks.

Note that if declarer ruffs the spade with either a low trump or the nine, he can no longer cope nearly so easily with the 4-1 trump break. The contract will come down to needing clubs or diamonds to split 3-3, since declarer will have to burn an entry to dummy to repeat the heart finesse.

ANSWER: Where you have a weak hand with a long suit, you may have trouble deciding whether to bid initially, and at what level. Here, I would risk a bid of three spades, intending it as pre-emptive, both to make the opponents’ lives harder and to plan a possible sacrifice. With a strong hand, I would start with a two-club cue-bid, so partner should not assume my hand is strong.