Contract Bridge

Four spades. It is vital at this point to let partner know about your excellent spade support, and also to inform him that your three-club rebid was based on maximum values. The jump-raise in spades is in keeping with the general principle that the more you bid, the more you’ve got. The purpose of the bid is to encourage partner to consider slam with an appropriate hand. A threespade bid would tend to say that your three-club bid was of minimum quality, and/or that your spade support is rather nondescript, such as J-x-x or worse.

2. Double. Whether your side has a game is uncertain, but whether you can defeat three clubs is not, assuming partner accepts the double by passing. If he has a normal complement of high cards for his opening bid and his distribution is not freakish, he will pass, and you’ll almost surely collect a sizable penalty.

You double largely on the “bird in the hand” theory. You are virtually certain to end up with a plus score by doubling, but might end up with a minus if you press forward without taking advantage of the opportunity to penalize East.

3. Seven spades. In the given sequence, the five-notrump bid has nothing whatever to do with Blackwood. If partner wanted to know how many aces and kings you had after your two-spade bid, he would first bid four notrump, and then bid five notrump over your five-diamond response.

The direct jump to five notrump is, rather, a convention called the Grand Slam Force. It asks partner to bid seven of the agreed trump suit if he has two of the three top trump honors. You therefore have no choice but to bid seven spades at this point. Your actual high-card values and distribution are totally inconsequential. A typical hand for partner’s bidding would be something like:

Tomorrow: A 100 percent finesse.