Tooth and Nail

Wednesday, August 5, 2020

Today’s East-West were a regular partnership — a dentist and a manicurist we call “Tooth and Nail” because that’s how they argue.

Against four spades, Nail led her singleton heart, and Tooth won and returned the ten as a suit-preference signal: a high heart to show strength in diamonds, the high-ranking side suit.

Nail ruffed and duly led a diamond, but South took the ace, ruffed a diamond and got to dummy with trumps to ruff two more diamonds. He drew trumps, led to the king of hearts and threw a club on the good fifth diamond. Making four.

ARGUMENT

Then came the argument. Nail: “Lead a club at Trick Two. South will play the king, and I win and return a club. Then you give me a heart ruff.”

Tooth: “Your diamond lead was horrible.”

Nail: “All I did was obey your signal.”

At the third trick, Nail must lead a trump, killing a dummy entry. If declarer has a diamond loser, he can’t avoid it. He can’t set up and cash the long diamond and loses two clubs.

DAILY QUESTION

You hold: ♠ A J ♥ K 6 3 ♦ AJ862 ♣ 10 9 3. You open one diamond, your partner responds one spade, you bid 1NT and he jumps to three hearts. What do you say?

ANSWER: Partner’s jump in a new suit is forcing, but he may have only four hearts. Since a 4-3 trump fit may be hard to handle, you shouldn’t raise to four hearts. Bid three spades. Partner should allow for the possibility that you are showing a preference with a strong doubleton. North dealer

Both sides vulnerable