Partner’s help is sorely needed

Today’s deal was played in a oneday teams event in Sydney, Australia. It was the decisive deal from the last round between the two teams vying for first place. It contained instructive points at both tables.

Bridge has become a bidder’s game. The more you bid, the more pressure you put your opponents under, and the more mistakes they will make. True, occasionally you will suffer a penalty, but the good results will outweigh the bad.

At the table under observation, North’s aggressive double was negative, showing at least four spades. Needing little more than kingqueen-fourth of spades in the dummy, South leaped straight to four spades.

West led the club king, then switched to the heart two, which even the barman knew was a singleton. Now East gave a suit-preference signal to help West. He played the heart nine under dummy’s 10, trying to indicate an entry in diamonds. Declarer continued with the ace and another spade. West won with the king, and East discarded the encouraging diamond nine. But West lost his nerve: He cashed the diamond ace, whereupon declarer claimed. If West had underled his diamond ace, East would have won the trick and given his partner a heart ruff to defeat the contract.

At the other table, North cautiously passed over two clubs. Then East, who liked his singleton and fourcard trump support, raised to three clubs. West went on to game. As you can see, five clubs was easy to make with the aid of the winning diamond finesse. One team scored plus 420 and plus 600, the swing that won the tournament.