Supporting Partner - Again!

8^th August – Board 6: East/West Game. Dealer East.

I wrote last time in a blog called ‘Supporting Partner’ about the advisability of doing just that as soon as possible, so I hope everyone had no problem at all with the following hand….

	North: S K 8 H K 7 5 4 D Q J 5 2 C K 10 5
West: S Q 10 4 H J 6 D K 9 7 6 3 C 8 3 2		East: S A J 9 6 5 2 H A Q 9 3 D A C Q 4
	South: S 7 3 H 10 8 3 D 10 8 4 C A J 9 7 6

West	North	East	South
		1S	No
2S	No	4S	End

There is absolutely nothing wrong at all in raising 1S to 2S with that West hand, making it easy for opener to go to game. If you don’t and bid 1NT then partner is in some dilemma as to how to proceed – and in fact a whole convention called ‘gazilli’ has been devised to cope with that problem! The trouble is that if you bid 3H it is not only somewhat of an overbid but when partner ‘prefers’ spades you will never be sure that he has a three card suit, when he might be 2-2 or even 2-3 in the majors. And if you bid 2H then partner might pass! Four spades is destined to make and South will probably make things simpler by leading a heart or a trump. On a diamond lead declarer has a choice of plays. He can either lead a low spade to dummy, effectively relying on the heart finesse, or he can play the ace of spades first to cater for a possible singleton king. The trouble with that line, of playing the ace of trumps and following up with a low trump, is that any defender with a holding of king to three might meanly play a third round, thus denying declarer the opportunity to ruff a heart. In fact any sensible line works and the game is certainly a good one.