ACES ON BRIDGE

Bill Hugenburg revived an old theme from the days of Benito Garozzo on this deal from the second qualifying session of the Bobby Nail Life Master Open Pairs at the 2005 Fall Nationals. Hugenburg sat West.

North exercised his judgment in bidding game over South’s natural three-diamond call.The fourth trump, double fit and diamond filler were all golden. However, the hand was still only a 4-count, and a counter-try of three hearts might have been more prudent.

At any rate, the poor spade game was reached. Hugenburg cashed two high hearts but was then in an awkward position. He solved his problem by exiting with the spade nine, which worked better than he could have hoped. Declarer covered the spade nine with the 10 and won East’s jack with the ace.Two rounds of clubs allowed Hugenburg to exit with a third club, ruffed in the South hand.

Declarer next played the diamond jack, covered by the queen and king, and finessed in spades, losing to Hugenburg’s singleton queen. It would seem West was now endplayed; he might have tried exiting with a diamond in the hope his partner had the nine, but that was unnecessary. Declarer’s full shape was already known, and South’s three-diamond call had confirmed the message.

Hugenburg exited with a club, providing a ruff-and-sluff for declarer that did not help him. Whichever hand South discarded from, Hugenburg still got his diamond trick for two down and all the matchpoints.

ANSWER: The danger of bidding two diamonds is that you might play there facing up to a 9-count with short spades and three or four diamonds. While this hand is not good enough to force to game, you do want to show your strength. The best call is to raise to two no-trump, getting the values off your chest. If five diamonds is the better game, you hope partner may be able to bid the suit.