THE REDUNDANCY IS A PLUS IN ADDITION

It is strange how certain expressions containing unnecessary words get into the language. People often refer to the SAT test - the Standard Aptitude Test test. And -- my particular aversion -- so many people say they got off of something. Why the "of"? Also, my local paper had the wonderful "two female twins" -- did you ever see three twins?

In bridge, cashing an unnecessary winner might be expensive. Here is an example, although it would not be clear-cut for West to find the winning defense. Look only at the West and North hands. Against four hearts, West leads the spade ace: seven, two, three. What should West do next?

North has an unappetizing hand full of quacks, but with 7 points and four trumps, he must raise.

When East plays the spade two, West knows that his partner holds either an unlikely singleton or at least three spades. If East had a doubleton, he would have started a highlow signal.

If East holds the diamond king-queen, West probably needs to shift to that suit. Here, though, West must lead a club at trick two. This establishes four tricks for the defense: two spades, one heart and one club.

Note that if West cashes the spade king at trick two, declarer will discard his club jack on the established spade queen, using the diamond jack as the dummy entry. Also, if West switches to a diamond, South wins in hand and immediately plays a second spade himself.

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Since declarer cannot discard his second spade on any of dummy's cards, that trick can wait.

Copyright United Feature Syndicate (Asia Features)