ACES ON BRIDGE
“If you believe doctors, nothing is wholesome; if you believe the theologians, nothing is innocent; if you believe the soldiers, nothing is safe.”
— Robert Gascoyne-Cecil Today, as South, you bid four spades over East’s one-diamond opener. It is unlikely you have a slam on, and bidding to four spades right away might make life difficult for the opponents.
That ends the auction, and West kicks off with the club king, which holds, followed by a trump shift. He can see the danger of heart ruffs coming in dummy, of course, and diamonds can wait.
You win the trump shift cheaply in hand and unblock the diamond ace. You can see nine tricks, but where might the 10th come from? The heart ace is surely offside, as there are only 19 points missing and West must hold the club kingqueen for his opening lead. If West had the heart ace too, it would mean East had made an opening bid while vulnerable with only 10 points. Your best chance of securing a 10th trick must be via a heart ruff in dummy, but how might you achieve that?
Your should lead a heart from hand, planning to cover West’s card.
When he follows low, insert the heart nine. East wins, but as you had hoped, does not have another trump to play. You ruff his club return and surrender another heart. Again, East must win the trick.You trump the third club and ruff a heart in dummy before pitching your fourth heart on the diamond king. You can come back to hand with a high ruff to draw trumps and claim.
Note that if you waste dummy’s heart king covering anything but West’s 10 on the first round of the suit, West can gain the lead with that card on the second round of hearts to lead another trump, killing dummy’s ruff.
ANSWER:
Open one spade. Four spades should show a weaker hand in high cards than this. You would bid that without the diamond ace, so how is partner to know whether to try for slam if you open four spades with this hand as well? You will jump to four spades over a one-no-trump response, to show a stronger version of the preempt. Incidentally, while you do have eight playing tricks, opening two clubs would be a wild overbid.