ACES ON BRIDGE
“While you live, Drink! — for once dead, you never shall return.”
— Khayyam/fitzgerald
As East on this deal from the Houston 2002 Nationals, you must try to defeat an optimistically bid slam after declarer ruffs the club lead and calls for the spade king.
It might be tempting to win and tap the dummy with a high club, but if South has the heart jack or five hearts, dummy’s spades can provide entry to the diamonds after they are ruffed out.
If declarer has five hearts, the contract is probably unbeatable. With 1=4=4=4 shape, South would have supported diamonds on the second round. Similarly, with five clubs, would he not have preferred to defend?
There is no rush to take the spade ace. When you see partner’s count signal of the spade four, you can assume he has three in that suit. Now when declarer calls for the spade queen, you know that if declarer had four small hearts and queen-doubleton diamond, he simply would have drawn trumps and cashed the diamonds.
Therefore, you should hold up the spade ace once again, inferring that the club continuation cannot be necessary. Now that declarer has no late entry to dummy in spades, he is done for. If he presses on with spades, you win and return a top club. Declarer can no longer both ruff the opponents’ potential diamond winners and reach dummy after drawing trumps.
If declarer ruffs a diamond after the second spade, then draws trumps and runs the diamonds, he is a trick short. Meanwhile, drawing only two trumps before pitching a spade on the fourth diamond would allow West to ruff and play a second club, well and truly killing the dummy.
ANSWER: There are two choices: a simple one and a complex one. The simple option is to splinter with four clubs and bid on over a four-heart signoff. The other path is to jump to two spades, planning a leap to four hearts at your next turn, to get the three-suited nature of your hand across. If neither appeals to you and you play Exclusion Blackwood, you could jump to five clubs. If partner passes, you will at least have a story for the bar.