You must guess, but can get help

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington, an Irish novelist who wrote a book about Lord Byron after meeting him in Genoa, claimed: “Friends are the thermometer by which we may judge the temperature of our fortunes.” As I mentioned yesterday, it helps at the bridge table if you can trust the friend sitting across the table from you. But occasionally, you can call on your other two friends, your opponents, to help you out. Here is another Danny Kleinman deal, this one played during a duplicate in Los Angeles.

Against three spades, West led the club king: four, nine, two. West continued with the club jack: eight, ace, 10. East shifted to the diamond two: eight, 10, six. West then led the diamond king. How should South have continued? Kleinman was North. He was lucky because West did not compete to three clubs. But his partner misplayed two spades to go down one for a bad result. However, if your opponents stop in two of a major that is at least an eight-card fit, you should find any excuse to balance. Here, it

is right to bid three clubs with that West hand. If it is passed out and goes down one, minus 100 would be much better than minus 110 against two spades. But North will usually compete to three spades because of the ninecard fit. Declarer has guesses in both majors, but he can get help if he takes the second round of diamonds and exits with his last diamond. East must either give a ruff-andsluff or shift to a major. Then South needs only to guess the other major.