Don’t paint a complete picture

When you know the right final contract, bid it immediately. Don’t beat around the bush, because extra interim bidding may give vital information to the defenders. Jim Jacoby benefited from a loquacious South on today’s deal, which occurred during a pair tournament in Monte Carlo.

By partnership agreement, North’s two-no-trump response showed a maximum pass with at least four spades. South should have jumped straight to game, keeping the opponents in the dark, but he knew that if they also had a 4-4 heart fit, that contract would probably play a trick better than four spades.

West led a low club, and Jacoby won the first trick with his king. Jacoby reckoned that South had nine major-suit cards, and as he had ducked the first trick, he clearly had at least two clubs. Perhaps he was 5=4=2=2. So Jacoby switched to a low diamond at trick two, West’s queen forcing out dummy’s ace. With the clubs blocked and no quick dummy entry left, South had to lose a trick in each suit.

This was a great result for EastWest, but it wasn’t as good as they anticipated. At other tables, where East returned a heart or a club at trick two, some declarers immediately drew two rounds of trumps. Then, when West gained the lead in hearts, he cashed the spade queen, leaving dummy with only one trump for two heart losers, and declarer with just nine tricks.

The right approach was to duck a heart as quickly as possible. Then South could have discarded the diamond eight on the club ace, cashed the top trumps and crossruffed home.