Both at once will find the fit

Kurt Vonnegut, whose best known book is Slaughter house Five, said ,“Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do after ward .” Bridge causes laughter and frustration—if one side is inward ly laughing, the other is probably frustrated. Look at the North hand in today’ s diagram. With neither side vulnerable, your right-hand opponent opens one spa de. What would you do? You have three choices: pass, two diamonds( higher-ranking of two five-card suits first) and two no-trump( the Unusual No trump,showing at least 5-5 in the minors ). Pass might result in your side’ s missing a good fit. But if you are due tobe out bid, passing will not give helpful information to the opposing declarer. Two diamonds risk sending in diamonds when you belong in clubs, but does not drive your side to the three-level on a relatively weak hand. Two no-trump will atleast find your side’ s better minor-suit fit, but is aggressive with such unimpressive suits. Also, if they win the auction, you will have given their declarer a complete map of the deal. One columnist recommended pass, but said two diamonds was acceptable. I think two diamonds is the worst choice. Either stay out or make sure you find the right fit and po-tentially frustrate the opponents. Here, over two diamonds, partner might well pass, and the contract will fail. But over two no-trump, he will bid three clubs, and that can be made, for example, by establishing the diamonds. There are several possible lines of play. For the curious, download Deep Finesse free from deepfinesse.com. —