ACES ON BRIDGE
“Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.” — Jonathan Swift
North overbid slightly with a four-heart splinter here, a fair reflection of his playing strength but an overstatement of values. South optimistically imagined ruffing all his hearts in dummy, so he took a shot at slam.
West found the excellent trump lead. Dummy was likely to be three-suited, and West had slow winners to protect. He could expect to gain the lead again for a second trump lead, which might prevent the crossruff.
Declarer won in dummy and led a heart. When East played an honor, declarer paused for consideration. If East had the heart ace, he might have produced it now since declarer could not have a guess. It looked like East was splitting his honors. If anyone had a singleton trump, it was likely to be
East, as West might not dare to lead a singleton.
So, South chose to play small, which turned out to be the winning move. If East held the lead, declarer would be able to take three heart ruffs in dummy, whereas if West overtook to play another trump, declarer would need only two ruffs.
When East retained the lead, he shifted to a club, taken by the ace. A heart ruff was followed by the diamond ace, a club to hand and another heart ruff. When the ace appeared, declarer drew trumps and claimed.
Had East played small on the heart, declarer likely would have gone up with the king, which would have been fatal here. West would win and continue trumps, holding declarer to 11 tricks.
ANSWER:
If jumping to four hearts as a splinter seems too much and a jump to four spades too little (I concur!), then there are two choices you might prefer. Use a three-no-trump response as a good raise to four spades, or use the jump one over your major — three spades over three hearts, three no-trump over one spade — as an unspecified splinter with 9-12 points. Partner can relay for the shortage if interested. If you would like to contact Bobby Wolff, email him at