AFTER BIDDING UP, DO YOU PAY UP OR PLAY UP?

It is a well-known saying in bridge that if you bid the spots off the cards, you had better know how to play the spots off as well.

In today’s deal, North’s four clubs was a splinter bid. It showed slam interest, spade support and a singleton (or void) in clubs. It was a debatable choice, a splinter with a singleton ace rarely being right, and North had such bad trumps. With nothing wasted in clubs, South wasn’t willing to stop short of six.

Actually, it isn’t the world’s worst slam, because of the secondary diamond fit, but South’s declarer-play wasn’t up to the task.

After winning the first trick with dummy’s club ace, declarer played a trump. When East’s king appeared, South smiled. He won with his ace and cashed the queen, but East discarded a club. Still alive, South ruffed a club in the dummy, played a diamond to his queen and ruffed his last club. Now if he could have just found West with four diamonds, South could have discarded the heart jack and queen before West ruffed in. However, when East followed to the second diamond, South took his best chance, attempting the heart finesse. It lost, and West scored two majorsuit tricks.

There was a simple way to get home — if South had thought of it. When East played the spade king, South should have ducked. Suppose East switched to a heart. South could have won with the ace, ruffed his two low clubs in the dummy, drawn trumps and run the diamonds. His 12 tricks would have been three spades, one heart, five diamonds, one club and those two club ruffs.