“Thus out of small beginnings greater things have been produced.” - William Bradford
In today’s auction North set clubs as trump so that he could use a Roman Key Card Blackwood inquiry to find out about the club king. The five-club response promised zero or three key-cards. North knew it was the latter, so felt that the grand slam in hearts would have a play.
West led the spade queen, and after winning dummy’s ace, South elected to ruff spades in hand. If they were 4-3, then a long spade would be established; if not, then all three of dummy’s small spades would have to be ruffed, requiring a dummy reversal.
After ruffing a spade, declarer had to decide how to return to dummy to ruff the second spade. He carefully used the dangerous entry, clubs, as his first re-entry to dummy (before anyone could discard one on the spades). This was a critical play.
East could only discard a diamond on the next spade, so declarer was in control. He ruffed it with the ace, played a trump to dummy, then ruffed the spade seven. As he still had a small trump, he played it to dummy’s queen, then drew the last heart with the king. Since hearts were 3-2, he had the rest of the tricks and his contract. Dummy’s losing diamond went on the fourth club.
Incidentally, a trump lead would have forced declarer to use two club entries to ruff spades; and you can see what East would have done to the second club.
Bid with the aces
South holds:
| ♠ 4 | |
| ♥ A 10 9 8 3 | |
| ♦ A J 10 | |
| ♣ K J 9 5 |
| South | West | North | East |
| 1 ♥ | 1 ♠ | Pass | 2 ♠ |
| Pass | Pass | Dbl. | Pass |
| ? |
Answer: This is a penalty double, despite the fact that the opponents have bid and raised spades. Partner would have made a takeout double on the previous round if he had the other suits. If he had extreme length in the minors with a weak hand, he should have bid two no-trump now instead of doubling. So pass and hope that you can set it.