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

“The true test of civilization is not the census, nor the size of cities, nor the crops - no, but the kind of man the country turns out.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Bobby Wolff United Feature Syndicate

For a defensive challenge today, I suggest you cover the South and East hands, then defend as West against four hearts. You lead the club king, on which East contributes the two. Since partner has agreed to give count on the lead of a king, you know that East had an odd number of clubs. What should you do now? At the table West felt he knew the exact distribution of the two unseen hands, so was able to cash the diamond ace, give his partner a diamond ruff, and after a club return to the ace, give a second diamond ruff, taking the contract two down.

How did West know that his partner held a singleton diamond? The key was that East-West were using weak two-bids in the majors. East was relatively unlikely to have six spades; otherwise, he would have opened with a weak two, especially at this vulnerability.

So South had four spades. She could not have five spades and four hearts, as then she would have opened one spade rather than one no-trump. South was known to hold four hearts, leaving two for East.

Since East had an odd number of clubs, it had to be five, not three. If East had only three clubs, then South would have four, which, along with four hearts and four spades, would leave only a singleton diamond. But a 4-4-1-4 shape would not constitute an opening one-no-trump bid.

Therefore, East had five spades, five clubs, two hearts – and only one diamond.

Bid with the aces

South holds:

♠ A 10 7 5
♥ A K 4 2
♦ K 7 3
♣ Q 3
SouthWestNorthEast
Pass2 ♦
Dbl.Pass2 ♥Pass
?

Answer: I suggest that passing is your best action here. You have some extras, but not enough reason to bid on when your partner has heard you double and has denied any real game interest. If you consider a typical decent hand facing you – say Q-J-fourth of hearts and the spade king – you are high enough already.