“MY partner threw me an ‘impossible’ bid,” a player complained to me. “He opened one diamond, I bid one heart and he jumped to four diamonds. I know what a rebid of three diamonds would have meant, but his four diamonds lost me.”
Clearly, opener had a good hand. If he had A K, 6, A K Q 9 7 5, Q J 8 7, he could jump to three clubs. If he held A Q, 6, A K Q 9 7 5 4, Q 10 7, he’d be reluctant to go beyond 3NT, which might be the only game.
“His bid had one logical meaning,” I remarked. “He showed solid diamonds plus four-card heart support.”
A bidding objective is to locate an eight-card trump fit, but playing at a 4-4 fit is a risk-reward situation. A 4-4 fit will often produce an extra trick, but a 4-1 break may be awkward. If declarer has another source of tricks — long suits or intermediate cards — and doesn’t need the ruffing trick a 4-4 fit will provide, a different trump suit may be safer.
In today’s deal, six hearts would have been impossible, but North judged well to try six diamonds. He knew South had diamond tricks, and North had so many values that he saw no need to play at a 4-4 heart fit.
At the diamond slam, South cashed the A-K of clubs and threw two hearts. He took the ace of trumps, led a heart to the ace and returned a heart. West took his king and shifted to a spade: queen, king, ace. Declarer then led a trump to dummy’s 10, ruffed a heart and got back with the jack of trumps to pitch his spade loser on the good heart.