You may think that North
was somewhat light for a jump shift. However, he wanted to hint that a
slam was possible below the game level. The deal comes from a New
Zealand international trial. Take the East cards and see how you fare.
Your partner leads the five of hearts and you win with the ace, the
jack showing from declarer. When you play a second heart, declarer
wins with the king and cashes the queen of hearts, throwing a club
from dummy. He then produces the king of spades and runs dummy’s
spade suit. How will you discard? David Ackerley was sitting East and
knew that he had to retain three diamonds, since declarer had bid the
suit. It followed that he would have to bare the king of clubs, lying
over dummy’s ace-queen. Rather than leave the club discard until
last, he blithely threw the three of clubs at his first opportunity.
He then threw a heart and two diamonds. The jack of diamonds was led,
covered by the queen and ace. Declarer crashed one more diamond and,
at Trick 12, led a club towards dummy’s ace-queen. He finessed into
the bare king and that was one down. Would you have given the game
away (given the slam away, I should say!) if you had been East?
What will you say now?
Answer
It is pointless to
respond 3S, looking for a spade fit. On some hands partner will raise
to 4S when he holds a doubleton honour in spades, so you cannot risk
making spades trumps anyway. How high should you raise the clubs? If
partner has three diamonds (quite likely when you are void in the
suit), you will be able to score three ruffs in the short-trump hand
for a total of 12. So, bid 6C.
You may think that North
was somewhat light for a jump shift. However, he wanted to hint that a
slam was possible below the game level. The deal comes from a New
Zealand international trial. Take the East cards and see how you fare.
Your partner leads the five of hearts and you win with the ace, the
jack showing from declarer. When you play a second heart, declarer
wins with the king and cashes the queen of hearts, throwing a club
from dummy. He then produces the king of spades and runs dummy’s
spade suit. How will you discard? David Ackerley was sitting East and
knew that he had to retain three diamonds, since declarer had bid the
suit. It followed that he would have to bare the king of clubs, lying
over dummy’s ace-queen. Rather than leave the club discard until
last, he blithely threw the three of clubs at his first opportunity.
He then threw a heart and two diamonds. The jack of diamonds was led,
covered by the queen and ace. Declarer crashed one more diamond and,
at Trick 12, led a club towards dummy’s ace-queen. He finessed into
the bare king and that was one down. Would you have given the game
away (given the slam away, I should say!) if you had been East?
It is pointless to
respond 3S, looking for a spade fit. On some hands partner will raise
to 4S when he holds a doubleton honour in spades, so you cannot risk
making spades trumps anyway. How high should you raise the clubs? If
partner has three diamonds (quite likely when you are void in the
suit), you will be able to score three ruffs in the short-trump hand
for a total of 12. So, bid 6C.