BRIDGE with Bob Jones

Today’s deal is from a recent match in the Camrose Trophy series contested annually in Great Britain. North-South were using Key Card Blackwood and the five spade response showed two key cards, among the four aces and the king of hearts, plus the queen of hearts. North expected South to have an eight-card suit, vulnerable, so he continued by asking for kings. South’s six-spade response showed specifically the king of spades and the grand slam was reached.

South took stock when the dummy came down and decided that he’d been in worse contracts. It might come down to a spade finesse, but there were plenty of extra chances and he set out to try them all before risking the finesse.

South won the opening heart lead with dummy’s 10, cashed the ace of diamonds, and ruffed a diamond high in his hand. Two high hearts drew the outstanding trumps and South crossed back to dummy with the ace of clubs. He cashed the king of clubs before ruffing another diamond. The jack of clubs was still out and the kingqueen of diamonds had not appeared, so declarer cashed the rest of his hearts, discarding all of dummy’s minor suit cards. In the three-card end position, South had the king-three of spades and the 10 of clubs opposite dummy’s ace-jackfour of spades. Resigned to taking the spade finesse, he cashed the king of spades and led a low spade. West had discarded a spade in order to keep the jack of clubs, so, to South’s delight, the queen appeared and South had his contract.