NINE-CARD SUITS CONTINUE TO APPEAR

Toward the end of January, I gave three deals featuring nine-card suits. I thought that would be it for a while, but no! I looked through some old issues of “Guardian Weekly” and found this deal in Zia Mahmood’s column. When his column was axed, I resigned my subscription.

The deal occurred during the 2009 Camrose Trophy, which is contested by England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland.

As England was hosting, it was permitted to enter two teams, which were called England and EBU (English Bridge Union). This deal arose when they faced each other.

Look at the West hand. With both sides vulnerable, South opens one spade. What would you do? If the opponents keep bidding spades above your hearts, with your partner passing throughout, how high will you go?

The England West bid the obvious four hearts. North, under pressure, competed with four spades. This was music to South’s ears, and so he bid four no-trump, Roman Key Card Blackwood. West bid six hearts, some would argue a tad too late. North passed, which said nothing about his key cards, but was more encouraging than double. He must have really liked his heart void and hoped his partner held the diamond ace. South bid six spades, which West doubled.

West’s lead isn’t recorded, but South had no trouble. He conceded one spade trick and ran the diamonds for plus 1660. (Note that seven hearts doubled costs only 800.)

I expect West wished that he had bid five — or six! --hearts over one spade.

DOPI is a sensible method after interference over RKCB: double zero, pass one, next step two, and so on.