Harvey Bernstein's Plain Dealer Bridge Column

This hand was dealt at a local duplicate game. I held the North cards and my partner was Mort Pierce of Chagrin Falls. It is a great feeling to pick up a hand like North in this layout. It's even better to hold these cards and hear your partner open the bidding.

Many players will disagree with Pierce's one spade call. His hand is marginal, at best. But the vulnerability is in our favor and he has an easy rebid. I could list a number of pros and cons, but I think he made the correct decision. The hand was played nine times and we were the only pair to reach the easy slam.

The opening lead was the queen of diamonds. After the hand was over, the East-West pair asked me about the three diamond bid. I explained that it was a new suit at the three level by an unpassed hand, so it was forcing and I needed to know more about my partner's hand. Additionally, I was trying to inhibit a diamond lead, since that was my weakness. Had Pierce and I been playing "fourth suit forcing", the bid would have been alertable, since it would have been conventionally forcing, but this was not the case.

While it is true that Pierce could have held a singleton club and two diamonds, in which case the slam would have been defeated with a diamond lead, I was willing to take that chance. There are many situations when the defense needs to make a specific lead to defeat a contract and just can't make that lead. This is one of the reasons that aggresive bidding pays off.
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Bernstein is a free-lance writer in Solon.

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