Contract Bridge

Good bidding often finds its reward during the play. Here is an unusual case where East-West cooperated perfectly in both the bidding and play to defeat four spades.

After East opened with one heart, South doubled, West bid two hearts, and North doubled. In the partnership’s style, North’s double in this sequence was “responsive,” asking his partner to choose a suit.

East thereupon made the key bid of three diamonds. He realized — both from the strong bidding by North-South and from West’s two-heart bid denoting a relatively weak hand — that his opponents had the balance of power. East therefore bid three diamonds in an effort to pave the way to the best defense.

One round later, four spades became the final contract. West led a diamond — the suit his partner had bid secondarily and this proved to be the only way to score four tricks. East ruffed and, mindful of his partner’s raise in hearts, underled his A-K-Q in order to put West back on lead. West won with the jack and played a second diamond for East to ruff.

East shifted to the queen of clubs, which did declarer no harm, but South still had to lose a diamond to West’s king and so finished down one. It was a bitter pill for North-South to swallow, and it was made all the more so by the knowledge that five diamonds was cold against any defense.

However, what’s bad for one side is usually good for the other, and EastWest had every right to congratulate themselves on a first-rate performance.