THE BRIDGE COLUMN

How would you handle the West hand after partner overcalled one diamond? Some experts would try to be clever, perhaps bidding one no-trump. Others might “walk the dog”, raising diamonds in small increments hoping to get doubled. This West chose to blast out what he felt was the value of his hand. This tactic is reasonable, but it didn’t work very well on this deal.

South bid six diamonds, hoping partner would realize that he had spades as well as hearts. North, who opened the bidding with a barking dog, must have been nervous to hear partner force to slam, but he didn’t have to figure out the meaning of South’s bid. His heart holding told him what to bid.

South played the deal expertly. East won the opening diamond lead and shifted to the queen of clubs. South won with dummy’s ace and immediately ruffed a club. He cashed the ace of hearts and led a heart to dummy’s queen. Another club ruff was followed by a heart to dummy’s jack, drawing East’s last trump. South ruffed another club with his own last trump and it was time to tackle the spades.

East had shown five diamonds in the bidding, then four clubs and three hearts in the play, so East could have a maximum of one spade. It had to be the queen or the 10. South cashed his ace of spades and was pleased to see the 10 from East. A confident spade to dummy’s nine brought home the slam. Nicely played!