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The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff

Opening Lead: ♠2

Every few days this month I have been running deals from Robert Ewen and Jeff Rubens' book, "It's All in the Game." These deals combine many technical points with an amusing format. In this one, I've kept Rubens' language, as the guru teaches a student how to play his delicate grand slam in clubs.

The student thinks he has cracked the problem: “South can’t be sure what to discard on spades until he plays hearts. So he wins the opening lead, draws trump, then plays three rounds of hearts ending in dummy. If hearts split 3-3, he throws the diamond queen on the high spade; otherwise, he pitches a heart and takes the diamond finesse.”

“No, you’re not with it yet.” The guru shook his head sadly. “Don’t be in such a hurry to jump into the main theme. Take your time. Do your discard thing later, but ruff a spade at trick two. West isn’t morally obligated to lead fourth-highest, particularly against a grand slam. He may have five spades, four hearts, and the diamond king. If you ruff a spade at once, establishing a menace against West, he will be forced to discard the diamond king when you run your trumps. But if East can guard spades, there is no squeeze.”

Rubens’ point is that if you do not ruff a spade, East keeps spades, West hearts, and declarer has to find the diamond king. But the spade ruff at trick two avoids any guess, as the cards lie, while giving up nothing.

Bid with the aces

This Hand of the Day was originally published on aces.bridgeblogging.com.

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