There is always something new BRIDGE

There’s supposedly nothing new under the sun. But bridge is rarely played outside. Also, it doesn’t matter how often you play; occasionally, something will come up that you have not thought about before. In today’s deal, for me, this was a new look at the trump-length theme.

Yesterday, I explained the support double. Opener bids one of a suit, responder bids one of a major, and the next player bids a suit below two of responder’s. If the opener makes a support double, he shows three trumps in partner’s suit and any hand strength. If he raises responder’s suit, he guarantees four trumps, and the more he bids, the stronger his hand.

Here, though, North has made a negative double, showing four hearts. Why use a support double? Well, North might have five hearts if his hand is too weak for a two-heart response. So distinguishing between three and four trumps seems like a good idea to me.

Yes, all right, here I had only two hearts, so, over East’s two-club cue-bid raise, I passed. West rebid two spades, and my partner jumped to four clubs. (Yes, she might have made a fourspade splinter bid if she were confident I would realize that she had good club support.) I raised to five clubs, ending the auction.

As you can see, six clubs have been made by taking the heart finesse and discarding South’s diamond loser on the heart king. But at Bridge Base Online, with 16 tables in play, seven pairs played in five clubs, six in four clubs, one in three clubs, one in two clubs (don’t ask!) and one in four spades by West.