A fit and a void limit the opponents

Dame Judi Dench said, “Work certainly does help fill a void.”

She is such a good actress. If you haven’t done so already, watch her in the television series “As Time Goes By.”

In a bridge deal, a void can help “fill” that side with extra tricks. The hardest part of today’s deal is getting to the right final contract. How would you and your partner bid?

In the given auction, North had the ideal hand for a splinter bid. Over two spades, his jump to four clubs promised good spade support and a singleton (or void) in clubs.

South now knew that he had no club losers because he could ruff the seven and queen on the board. But who had the diamond ace? Using Blackwood would not have helped when North showed one ace — was it the useless heart ace or the invaluable diamond ace? So South continued with a fourheart control-bid, which denied firstround diamond control (a suit skipped over) and showed first-round heart control. Then, when North control-bid five diamonds, South confidently jumped to seven spades.

After West led the heart king, South ruffed and cashed the spade ace, planning to claim if both opponents followed. However, when East discarded, declarer cashed the club ace, ruffed a club, played a spade to hand, trumped the last club, ruffed a heart high and drew the missing trump.

Note that South did not try to return to hand with a diamond, because it carried the risk that West was void in the suit.