Twice the chance of having a fit

As I mentioned yesterday, my wife and I are experimenting with opening two diamonds when we hold a weak major two-suiter. It is nice to have twice the chance of finding a major-suit fit.

In this deal, after my wife opened two diamonds, and East overcalled three clubs, I was tempted to jump to four spades because of the apparent double fit. However, my partner is no shrinking violet in the auction, so I guessed well to settle for three spades.

West (a computer opponent) led its trump. East took dummy’s king with the ace, cashed the top clubs and then erred by shifting to a diamond instead of the heart jack. I won with my ace, drew trumps and went down one, losing one spade, one heart, one diamond and two clubs.

How could East-West have gotten on?

Note that with good guesswork in diamonds (not so hard after our opening bid by North), six clubs is makable. But looking at only the East-West hands, you would be happy to reach five clubs. At Bridge Base Online, nine tables played in two clubs. After North unimaginatively passed(!), East opened one club, South made a takeout double, West responded one heart, North advanced with one spade, East rebid two clubs, and all passed.

One table was in three spades by North. I do not know the auction, but the defense was perfect: Heart jack to the ace, heart ruff, the club king (South played the queen) and a diamond shift. Declarer won with South’s ace and played a trump, but East won, cashed the club ace, played a diamond to partner’s king and received a second heart ruff for down three.