BRIDGE with Bob Jones

West entered the auc tion with a bid that would be the choice of almost all tournament players today.

Two-suited bids like this, however, can backfire terribly by giving too much information to declarer.

Had there been no opposition bidding, declarer would have drawn trumps and tested the hearts.

When that suit failed to split 3-3, they would have double finessed in diamonds. This is a strong line of play — well over 80 percent — but it would have failed on this lie of the cards.

Declarer can do much better after West’s bid. South won the opening club lead and drew trumps in four rounds. He played off his last trump and cashed the ace, queen, and king of hearts. All he had to do was keep track of West’s discards.

In the four-card ending, South would have all three of his diamonds plus a low club. Dummy would have the jack, nine, and seven of diamonds, plus a high club. Should West have come down to four diamonds, or three diamonds and a club, South will cash the high club and lead the jack of diamonds.

West will win and have to lead a diamond into South. Should West come down to only two diamonds, South will play the ace and another diamond to set up a second diamond trick. This line also caters to the off-chance that East has a singleton diamond honor. 100 percent if West is 5-5 in the minors, as advertised.