aceS on bridge

“Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error.”

-- Cicero

Nobody likes to do the wrong thing at the bridge table, but West was curiously pleased with his activities in this deal. As he subsequently explained, he knew he wasn’t ever going to achieve perfection, so he thought it was a good idea to fit as many mistakes as possible into one single deal, to improve his chances of performing competently on the rest.

The auction gave West his first problem. East had competed with a double of two hearts (an unusual two-no-trump call was also a live possibility, given his honor distribution) and now, over South’s jump to four hearts, West might well have bid four spades and escaped with the loss of 500 points. Five diamonds would have cost only 200, but he chose to pass.

West then led the spade king, giving declarer some chances, as East contributed the six. It looked to South as though the club ace was surely wrong, so his contract would have to depend on finding West with the club queen. Just in case the cards did not cooperate, declarer went for the cunning approach. He won with the ace, drew trump and followed with the spade four. West, caught unawares, played the seven. Now East was forced to overtake and try to cash his top diamonds. South ruffed, ran the spade jack, and now one of dummy’s clubs went away on the spades.

To set the game, West had to rise with his spade queen and find the club switch.

ANSWER: Normally in this situation, I would advocate bidding the major (and indeed in a heavily competitive auction one spade might work well). But if, as you expect, your LHO will simply raise to two hearts, you might do best to mention diamonds first, then bid two spades over two hearts. This way, you get your suits in economically and bid your long suit first.