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North was a member of the old-fashioned school and launched his hand with a redouble. There was little point in this because he had no intention of standing a double from partner of 2C or 2D. In the old days players had to redouble on those North cards because they used 2H as a non-forcing rescue. It was never a very sensible method and nowadays most players ‘ignore the double’. In other words, they play a response of 2H as forcing, over a double, and the auction then continues as if no double had been made. The point in the play concerns the defence, so cover up all the hands except West’s and see how you fare. You cash three winners in clubs and everyone follows. How will you seek a fourth trick for the defence? Since there are only 13 points not visible to West, and South opened the bidding, it is scarcely possible for East to hold more than a jack or two. Hoping that East would hold the jack of trumps, West continued with fourth round of clubs, giving declarer as useless ruff-and discard. This clever defence defeated the contract. Declarer chose to ruff with one of dummy’s high trumps and East’s trump jack was promoted into a trick. If declarer does not ruff in the dummy, of course, East will ruff with the jack.
Answer You want to play in 4H, at least. A direct raise to 4H would suggest fewer points than this; it would be a pre-emptive raise aimed at shutting out the opponents. The best bid here is a Splinter Bid to 4D, which shows a sound game raise and at most one diamond. Partner can then judge whether a slam will be possible. If you don’t play such response, respond 1S to find out more about partner’s hand. AWARDS: 4D (splinter) - 10, 1S-7, 4H-4, 4NT-2. David Bird — Knight Features
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