Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

“The more alternatives, the more difficult the choice.” - Abbe D’Allainval

Bobby Wolff United Feature Syndicate

Sometimes a bridge hand does not have a single clear-cut solution.

In that case the player with the problem has to use all the evidence at his disposal to try to choose from among the competing lines of play.

On today’s deal South’s decision to break the transfer to three spades to emphasize his good trumps gets him to a marginal slam.

West leads the queen of clubs, and dummy’s king wins.

After drawing trumps, declarer cashes the three diamond winners, then plays the ace of clubs, trying to decide whether to play on clubs to discard his heart loser.

With the 5-1 club break exposed, that possibility is eliminated.

But declarer now has to determine who has the heart king if he is to make the hand.

If it is West, a strip squeeze will bring home the contract.

Declarer will run all his winners, then play a third club to force West to lead away from the heart king.

However, as West has at least three diamonds, together with five clubs and two spades, there are not that many vacant spaces left for him to hold the king of hearts.

By contrast East has at least six hearts, so he is more likely to hold the key missing card.

So declarer continues by leading out ace and another heart.

East can take dummy’s queen with his king but then has to concede a ruff-and-discard, whichever red suit he returns.

Declarer will ruff in hand, discard the losing club from dummy, and take the rest.

Bid with the aces

South holds:

♠K Q 10 7 2
♥Q 2
♦Q 8 5
♣A K 4
SouthWestNorthEast
1 ♦Pass
1 ♠Pass2 ♣Pass
?

Answer: Rebid two hearts, the fourth suit, to set up a forcing auction.

Since you have no idea which strain to play in or at what level, find out more about your partner’s hand before committing yourself.

The fourth suit is game forcing and will get partner to describe his hand more fully.