When you have unshown support

Robert Graves, the English historical novelist and translator whose most famous work was surely “I, Claudius,” said, “Prose books are the show dogs I breed and sell to support my cat.”

Bridge has a reliable mantra: Support with support. Look at the auction in today’s deal. What do you think of it?

The first three bids are fine. North should rebid two hearts because we love majors and hate minors. South, though, should have rebid two no-trump because they were using two-over-one game-force. That would have left North room for three diamonds.

When South jumped to three notrump, North should have bid four diamonds. Although he had only 12 points, he had four first-round controls and a hand very suitable for play in diamonds. Then it isn’t clear-cut how the auction would have proceeded, but in both scenarios, six diamonds should have been reachable. It is an acceptable (but not laydown) slam.

South took a reasonable but unlucky line in three no-trump. After ducking two rounds of clubs, he decided to hope that diamonds were not 2-2, because if they were, he anticipated a bad board. So he played a diamond to dummy’s ace and returned a diamond to his jack. West scooped up the trick and cashed out the clubs for down one.

In six diamonds, declarer can win all 13 tricks if he guesses everything correctly. He can take one spade, four hearts (with a finesse through West), five diamonds, one club and two club ruffs on the board.