NEW CANADIAN BRIDGE

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

South ruffed the heart continuation and cashed the ace of diamonds revealing the 4-0 division. A spade to the king was followed by the jack of diamonds as declarer drew trump in four rounds. However, he could not avoid the loss of a club trick but the game was just home.

An overtrick was available after winning the jack of diamonds by cashing the ace of clubs and finishing the spades discarding two clubs from the table. Declarer ruffs a club in dummy and draws trump via another finesse to score twelve tricks.

If East is able to ruff an early spade, then South has simply traded a club loser for a ruff He would then win any exit and draw the last trump for eleven tricks.

South's advance to three clubs functioned as a help-suit game try where North's raise to four clubs accepted the game invitation but also promised the ace or king of clubs. South then swiftly advanced to the excellent minor suit game. North's diamond raise denied spade length but promised four-card diamond support and the fact that he did not respond 1NT intimated that he held nothing of value in hearts.