Take a boost from good intermediates

Ambrose Bierce defined childhood as: “The period of human life intermediate between the idiocy of infancy and the folly of youth — two removes from the sin of manhood and three from the remorse of age.”

In bridge, children do not give extra value to intermediates — the nines and 10s. But an adult knows they can be extremely valuable.

Take, for example, J-5-4 opposite either A-3-2 or A-10-9. In the former case, you have some 1.7 percent chance for two tricks. But with those intermediates, your odds rise to 76 percent. Always upgrade for intermediates, especially in long suits.

In today’s deal, South has been dealt one valuable intermediate. Which card is it, and how did declarer use it to improve his chances in five clubs after West led a diamond?

Following North’s gameinvitational limit raise, South ought to have bid three diamonds, aiming for three no-trump, but that would have pinpointed the lethal heart lead.

With two heart losers, it looked like South needed the spade finesse to work, but the spade nine improved his chances.

After winning with the diamond ace, declarer drew the missing trump, cashed the diamond king and exited with a heart. The defenders took two heart tricks ending with West. He returned the spade four. However, declarer played low from the board. Here, South was home, but even if East could have put in the spade 10, declarer would have won with his ace and finessed dummy’s spade jack. Declarer would have succeeded if West had either the spade queen or the spade 10.