ACES ON BRIDGE

Pamela Granovetter may not be a player known to a wide audience, but she is a true expert and a perfect partner. In the compact knockout event at the 2005 Fall Nationals in Denver, the very first deal she played in the event generated a nice point of declarer play.

South’s three-club rebid was a big overbid; to my mind, it is better to bid two clubs and then act again over a sign-off. However, four hearts was the par contract. On a diamond lead and continuation, declarer simply loses two diamonds and a trump, ruffing one club in dummy and pitching two on dummy’s side winners (the spade ace and the good diamond jack).

Granovetter (West) led a club, however. Declarer won and unblocked the spade ace, ruffed a club, then cashed the spade king to pitch a diamond from hand. Declarer next crossed to the heart ace and ruffed another club.

At this point, declarer led a diamond from dummy, and you may now plan the defense.

East won with the ace and played a spade, ruffed with the heart eight and overruffed by Granovetter with the 10.A club return allowed East to ruff his partner’s winner and lead another spade, promoting the heart queen to the setting trick.

In the seven-card ending described, declarer could have survived by ruffing the third round of spades with the heart king and exiting with a heart. Better (and far simpler) would have been for declarer to lead a spade, discarding the diamond queen! Now 10 tricks are almost assured.

ANSWER: It makes sense to blast out four spades. It is often right to bid game when partner raises your six-card major (as advised by Jeff Meckstroth). This is especially true when you have a double fit. Try not to help the opponents on lead if you know where you want to play. The shorter the auction, the fewer clues the opponents have.