The bidding places their honor cards

Stanislaw J. Lec, a Polish poet and aphorist, wrote, “There are grammatical errors even in his silence.”

If you were told at the beginning of a deal that your side was going to be outbid, your partnership would probably do best to stay silent, passing throughout and not giving the opposing declarer free information about your hands. True, sometimes being active in the auction will push your opponents into the wrong spot; but not often.

In this deal, North-south reached four spades after West had opened one diamond. West, with an unappealing lead, selected a heart as the least of evils. South won with his king, played a spade to dummy’s jack and cashed the spade ace. How did declarer continue after East discarded a heart?

I like to play South’s one-spade advance as forcing for one round, but even if it were nonforcing, North was still worth a raise. Then South took a shot at game, despite being worried that his diamond king would prove worthless. However, the vulnerable game bonus was a powerful lure.

The declarer was threatened with losing two spades, one diamond and one club. The first three were unavoidable, so the club loser had to be eliminated.

West, since the bidding marked him with the diamond ace and club king, was a candidate for an endplay. Declarer cashed the heart ace and discarded a diamond on the heart jack. West ruffed, cashed the spade king and paused. But whichever minor he chose to lead, South would have gained an extra trick. At the table, West led the club king (perhaps South had a singleton queen), so declarer took four spades, four hearts and two clubs.