THE ACES ON BRIDGE

“There’s always a way if you’re not in a hurry.” -- Paul Theroux

Sometimes even the most promising hand proves to be a disappointment. In the Spring Foursomes, English international Sally Brock held the East hand. Although no one likes to make a takeout double without holding the spade suit, here, with 22 high-card points, she did not see a sensible choice. When South’s four spade bid came around to her, again, she didn’t see any alternative to doubling.

Against four spades, West led the heart nine, which declarer won, took a spade finesse, and rattled off lots of trump. However, in the five-card ending (after all the trumps), dummy was squeezed before East was. Try as he could, declarer could take no more than nine tricks.

But suppose declarer ducks the first heart. Best defense is to switch to the diamond king (now declarer cannot both ruff his diamonds good and take the spade finesse), but that is very hard to find. Suppose, instead, East passively returns another heart.

Now declarer wins, takes the trump finesse, and plays off all his trumps. The last four cards in his hand are one heart, one diamond and two clubs. Dummy holds two diamonds and two clubs. What does East do? She has to keep a heart and two diamonds, so keeps only one club. Then declarer will simply play a club, establishing a winner in that suit, which he can reach via the diamond ace.

Answer: Your partner has forced to game and asked you to describe your hand. There is no need to jump to show your heart support, or to suggest a minimum hand. With decent values and good heart support (plus what might well be a useful spade control) just support partner by bidding three hearts and let partner take it from there. If he raises to four hearts, you should then cue-bid four spades.