THE BIDDING BOY BLABBED THE BYLINE

If an opponent has bid, use the information supplied to your advantage. Don’t be deaf to the data dispensed.

In today’s deal, South played in five clubs after the given auction. West led the diamond queen. What should South have done?

South didn’t know what to bid after East surprised him with a weak two in hearts. (Agreed, perhaps this was the only player who would have made that bid, especially when vulnerable, with no picture card in the suit and all of those honors outside.) After some meditation, South decided to take a shot at game in his other long suit.

The declarer was so happy to have dodged a spade lead that he took his eye off the ball. He discarded his spade king on dummy’s diamond ace, then immediately played a trump. However, the defenders took their club ace and club king before exiting with a diamond. When the hearts, as expected, split 6-0, South could ruff only one of his heart losers in the dummy. On the sixth round of the suit, East’s 10 beat declarer’s nine to defeat the contract — have you ever seen that happen before?

As the 6-0 heart split was a virtual certainty from the bidding, declarer’s only chance was to find East with the singleton or doubleton spade ace. At trick two, he should have ruffed a spade in his hand. Then, after two rounds of trumps and a diamond ruff in hand, declarer could have played a heart to the queen and ruffed another spade, bringing down the ace. Back to dummy with a heart ruff, the heart nine would have disappeared on the spade queen: contract made.