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Trumps are Tricks: aces too!

When you aim to make lots of tricks, like in the slam zone, you do not necessarily need that many high card points. Aces, or voids, are very important and you can do extremely well with great length in one suit. Take the following:

 

2 was 4^th suit forcing, game forcing. Much to your surprise, your partner replies with delayed heart support. You follow that up with Roman Key-Card and the 5 response confirms partner holds the A (1 or 4). You next check for the Q and side-suit kings. 6 confirms both Q and the K but neither of the other side-suit kings.

What now?

What do you know about your partner’s hand? It would seem they have at least 5 diamonds and 4 clubs. 3 said they either had nothing better to bid in reply to your 2 ask (e.g. xx with say 2-2 in the majors) or that they really had 3 card heart support (subsequently confirmed as Qxx). It would seem the worst major holding they could have is xx and Qx though even then the spade loser can be discarded on diamonds.

A worry is that the K is missing but the key is the diamond suit. All partner has owned up to so far is Q and AK. They should have a little more for their opening bid. What is more important is the length of the diamond suit.

The above comments err on the conservative side because with the diamond suit headed by AKQ, grand slam would almost be lay-down. There was no Q but 13 tricks were not hard to come by:

Maybe South “wimped out” by bidding 6. West led a trump and South won to play A and diamond ruff with K. Then a trump to dummy and a second ruff. A and a ruff and the two high diamonds in dummy (KJ) took care of the two losing clubs in the South hand. All 13 tricks on a combined 26 hcp.

JT were a bonus. As long as the suit broke 4-3, a diamond suit of AK542 would have been good enough for 13 tricks. The South hand had very few losers even though it was only a 15 hcp hand opposite a very minimum opening bid. Its shape and controls should make reaching 6 a certainty and much of the time, all 13 tricks could be made.

An alternative way of bidding this board would occur if North raised the 1 bid to 2, a very sound approach with a weak second suit and ruffing value for partner. Again, small slam should be reached though if the opening bid could be a weak no-trump, then the knowledge about the presence of the 5^th diamond may not be known…and then the absence of the K becomes much more relevant when considering grand-slam. 

Nevertheless, whichever approach your bidding might take, depending on North’s response to 1, the two key features of the South hand, heart length and aces, should ensure that this low hcp small slam should be bid…and perhaps even the grand. Just checking you would?

Richard Solomon

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