New players are reluctant to raise partner’s one-of-a-major response with only three-card support. A little experience teaches us that it is often the right bid when there is a little distribution in opener’s hand. North’s raise on this deal was sound.
The contract would be a “day at the beach” if the clubs split 3-2, but the opening club lead looked like a singleton and declarer had to decide how best to deal with it. Drawing trumps right away wouldn’t work, as there would be no entry back to dummy once the clubs were established. Even two rounds of trumps were too many on this deal. The 4-1 trump split meant that the defense would succeed as long as West was patient and didn’t ruff any clubs.
This deal was played recently in a team competition, and the declarer at one table found the winning line. He won the opening club lead in his hand, cashed the king of spades, and then led his remaining club toward dummy. West could not profit by ruffing, so he discarded a heart as dummy’s ace won the trick. Declarer led a low club and ruffed it with his queen before leading a low spade to dummy’s jack. South now cashed dummy’s king of clubs and continued running the good clubs. West could ruff whenever he liked, but the ace of spades was still in dummy for an entry as well as to draw the last trump. Well done!
