13

February 2016 English Bridge

www.ebu.co.uk

The lead is consistent with a three or four card

holding. So it is just possible that West began with a

1-3-4-5 shape, and a singleton honour in spades.

This would be a very specific layout to choose to

play for, as against many layouts where the spades

are more evenly divided with East holding two

honours. Your final clue comes from the cards that

East played in diamonds. If he began with Q-?-4-2,

it would be normal to return the original fourth

highest - the two. If East had just three diamonds,

West would have K-10-8-7-5, and would have

begun with the seven. When East returned the four

and followed with the two, it looks more probable

that East began with five, so cannot hold five spades.

Play a spade to the nine, and keep your fingers

crossed! This was the full deal:

´ 10 7 4

™ A Q 10 3

t A 9 3

® A K 4

´ 8 6 2 ´ Q J 3

™ 9 6 5 ™ 8 7

t K 10 5 t Q 8 7 4 2

® 8 7 3 2 ® 10 6 5

´ A K 9 5

™ K J 4 2

t J 6

® Q J 9

N

W E

S

Heather's hints:

1 A Jacoby 2NT over one of a major shows game

values and four card support. It is highly

recommended as these hands are otherwise

rather unwieldy, and space-consuming to

describe, which may leave you short of room

to investigate a slam.

Using 2NT as a natural response is

unnecessary and undesirable in any case. It is

better to respond in a four card minor suit

with invitational balanced hands since this

leaves room to establish whether there is a

five-three major suit game available.

2 When you have a crucial decision to make in a

suit, leave it until the last possible moment,

gathering as much evidence as you can along

the way. Remember to look carefully at the

small cards played in other suits if you want to

get a count on the hand. r