Contract Bridge

You’d have very little chance for game with the first hand and an excellent shot at game with the second. So you raise to three spades and let partner decide whether to bid four. Your K- 4 of spades are adequate support for a suit that partner has bid twice.

2. Pass. You can’t fight city hall. With no fit in spades and minimum high- card values for your opening bid, this is obviously not a game- going hand. The only problem remaining, therefore, is to find the best partscore contract.

In general, where there’s a misfit — which seems to be the case here — you should throw in the towel as soon as you can. The only other possible action would be to bid three clubs, but this might lead you deeper into the morass if partner cannot support that suit. The sooner you drop a hot potato, the better off you are.

3. Two notrump. You can’t very well pass with 17 high- card points and the possibility that partner might have as many as 10, so you invite partner to bid game in notrump, which you’ll almost surely make if he bids it. Of course, partner might have a hand suitable only for spades, and in that case he’ll bid three or four spades, either of which you’ll pass.

4. Four spades. The jumpraise to game, despite your skimpy trump holding, comes much closer to representing the real value of your hand than does the alternative bid of three spades.

True, you have only 15 high- card points, but nearly all of them are potential tricks. In particular, your three trumps, together with the singleton ace of diamonds, should be worth their weight in gold. Partner might not make four spades, but you would be remiss not to bid it.