Bridge

South crossed to the king of clubs to follow with a spade for the ten and queen. East switched to a diamond but declarer won the ace and cashed the jack of spades as both defenders followed. A club to the ace revealed a normal break in that suit and the last spade was drawn resulting in an overtrick, N-S +650.

North's four club overcall functioned as Leaping Michaels promising a strong hand with five clubs and five spades. South then advanced to the major suit game with threecard spade support.

The minor suit game also comes home but would yield an inferior result (+600). 3NT has nine top tricks and might do even better with South as declarer when West begins with the heart king. North would be restricted to the contract when East leads a heart because the queen of spades is offside.

This agreement frees up a cue bid of a major suit weak twobid to become a Western Cue Bid asking partner to bid 3NT when he owns a stopper in the major suit. North would hold a good hand with a solid seven card minor, essentially guaranteeing nine tricks as long as South could furnish a guard in the major suit. Copyright 2017 Torstar Syndication Services