Sunday, July 21, 2002		Bridge

If in doubt, bid one for the road
by Omar Sharif

WHEN a deal is highly competitive and it seems that both sides have a good fit in one or two suits, there is always a good case for bidding on. Take this deal:

East dealt at love-all and chose One Spade. South overcalled with Two Hearts, West — rather feebly — passed, and North raised to game.

Rather than raise the level, East fought on with Four Spades. But when South’s next bid of Five Hearts came round to him, it seemed a little late to introduce the Diamonds.

As you can see, Five Spades (on best defence) would have gone two off, costing 300 points at most —but six Diamonds would have failed by only one trick.

What about South’s prospects in Five Hearts after a Spade lead and continuation? It looks as though it willl all depend on a 2-2 break in Clubs — but declarer found a neat way to improve his chances.

He ruffed the second Spade, crossed to dummy with a trump and played Ace and another Diamond which he ruffed. Then he drew the last trump and ruffed dummy’s third Diamond. Finally, he led a low Club from hand and when West played low, put in dummy’s nine.

East won, but whatever he returned allowed declarer to ruff in hand an discard dummy’s losing Club.

The moral on this hand at any rate, is as I suggested —if in doubt, bid one for the road.