Bridge

On today’s hand, West’s five-club overcall took away all of North-South’s bidding space, but North, who reckoned he had enough to bid a slam anyway, cue-bid six clubs on the way to six spades. South cooperated with a cuebid of six diamonds, which would have allowed North to bid seven spades if he had held the trump king. With a minimum opening bid, South would have signed off in six spades over six clubs.

It was lucky for North-South that they avoided the grand slam, though, for the club-king lead was ruffed by East, who returned a heart. Now declarer needed to guess trumps right to make the small slam. Plan the play.

You have to get a count on the opposing hands to decide how to play trumps. Curiously, there is a sure-fire way to do this. Win trick two with the heart ace and continue with your other three top hearts, discarding all the diamonds from dummy. If at any stage West ruffs, you overruff and your problems are solved. What happens is that West turns up with only two hearts, then discards two clubs. Now, with dummy void in diamonds, it is safe to try the ace and jack of diamonds. West follows once, but then discards another club. At this point you have a complete count: West started with precisely eight clubs, two hearts and one diamond. Therefore, he began with king-doubleton of spades, and you must take the trump finesse.

Bid with the aces

South holds:

Answer: Rebid a quiet two clubs. Two other more aggressive actions might seem plausible. A raise to two no-trump is about right on values, but your shape is wholly inappropriate for that call. And a jump to three clubs is equally (if not more) unacceptable. Although you have 17 HCP, your singleton king is not pulling its weight, and the spot-cards are feeble.