ACES ON BRIDGE

After North’s Jacoby two no-trump, South showed short clubs and North used Key-Card Blackwood. After the five-no-trump call, guaranteeing all the key-cards, South hoped to buy a minor-suit king, so he shot out the grand slam. Had North cue-bid four clubs, hoping for a four-diamond cue-bid from his partner, he would have known to settle for the small slam.

West led the club jack. Rather than relying on the diamond finesse, declarer sought to squeeze a defender between the red suits. However, a minor-suit squeeze could not really operate since East would be discarding behind the dummy.An alternative might have been to run off three rounds of trumps early, but neither opponent was likely to pitch hearts when South had disclosed his short clubs earlier in the auction.

Declarer had to manage his entries to avoid prematurely committing himself. He ruffed a club high at trick two and then returned to dummy with the spade eight to ruff another club high. A spade back to the 10 was followed by another club ruff and a third round of trumps, East shedding three diamonds along the way. Next came a heart to the ace and the final trump.

East cunningly bared his diamond king, but declarer was not to be outdone. After cashing three rounds of hearts, he played a diamond to the ace to score up his grand slam.

By the time South reached the critical moment, East was known to have more diamonds than West and was thus favored to hold the diamond king.

ANSWER: A call of three spades is tempting with the near-solid suit, but I would prefer to rebid two hearts to let partner evaluate his hand properly. If partner bids two spades, a raise to three will let him make the right decision for the right reasons. With a four-card minor instead of hearts, you might persuade me to rebid three spades.