Supporting Partner

1^st August – Board 1: Love All. Dealer North.

Sometimes no rebid seems to exactly fit the bill and the hand shown below was a case in point. When in doubt though I try to follow the principle of ‘bid what you think your partner wants to hear’ and that is usually agreeing his trump suit! So although in many ways the hand is a bit good for raising to 2S I think that is far superior to reversing with 2H or rebidding 2D. (You never get a good score at pairs playing in 2C/D!)

	North: S J 9 H Q J 9 D A 10 4 C 9 8 5 4 2
West: S K Q 2 H A K 6 5 D Q 9 7 6 5 2 C none		East: S A 7 6 4 3 H 8 4 3 2 D 3 C A Q 6
	South: S 10 8 5 H 10 7 D K J 8 C K J 10 7 3

West	North	East	South
	No	No	No
1D	No	1S	No
2S	No	3C	No
3H	No	4H	End

3C is a trial bid looking for game and seeking club support if opener is in doubt whether to go to 4S or not. However this gives the opener a heaven-sent opportunity to introduce his four-card heart suit and, by inference, only three spades. East happily can raise to the heart game, much easier than playing in spades, although both contracts can result in eleven tricks due to the nice distribution of the outstanding cards.