Which Is More, 53 or 44?

Even the second-graders in the audience are saying "well, duh!" But bridge is a complex game...

♠	A Q 2
♥	A Q 5 4
♦	A J 5
♣	8 3 2

Partner deals and opens 1 ♠. Your right-hand opponent passes.. You are playing 2/1, of course. Your call?

ANSWER: 2 ♣. Not 2 ♥.  Bidding 2 ♥ right now would show a five-card suit. You don't have that, so you must bid a minor suit. Not 2 ♦. Bidding 2 ♦ would show longer diamonds than clubs. Yes, your club suit is loathsome. But your bid here is not about clubs: it is about creating a game-forcing auction. With three cards in each minor, give partner as much bidding space as possible. No matter how much enthusiasm partner might show for clubs, you will always insist on spades later. And don't worry about missing a heart fit. If partner has a four-card heart suit, she will bid it at her next opportunity.

You bid 2 ♣. Fortunately for our discussion here, partner bids 2 ♥.

West	North	East	South
	1 ♠	Pass	2 ♣
Pass	2 ♥	Pass	?

Partner shows at least four hearts here. You have an eight-card fit (or better) in both majors! Which do you choose: spades or hearts?

ANSWER: Bid 3 ♥, setting hearts as trump. Yes it is possible that partner has six spades and four hearts, in which case spades would be a better trump suit. But partner could also be five-five in the majors, making hearts a nine-card trump suit versus only eight in spades. With the information you have right now, there are two eight-card trump suits. Choose the 4-4 fit rather than the 5-3 fit.

You will easily find your way to 6 ♥ on this hand. But look what can happen if you play in spades instead of hearts:

	♠ K 9 8 5 4 ♥ K J 9 7 ♦ 10 8 ♣ A K
♠ 7 ♥ 10 3 ♦ Q 7 6 2 ♣ 10 9 7 6 5 4	N W E S	♠ J 10 6 3 ♥ 8 6 2 ♦ K 9 4 3 ♣ Q J
	♠ A Q 2 ♥ A Q 5 4 ♦ A J 5 ♣ 8 3 2

If spades are trump, you must lose a spade trick due to the 4-1 split, and there is an unavoidable diamond loser. 6 ♠ is a hopeless contract here, as is 6NT. But if hearts are trump, you can ruff the fourth round of spades, and use the remaining spade to discard one of  South's minor suit losers, making 6 ♥ easily. (If both major suits were to break evenly, you would make 7 ♥ by discarding South's two diamond losers on the long spades. But 7 ♠ will never ever make, no matter how the suits split, no matter how inept the defense.)

THE PRINCIPLE: When you have a 4-4 fit and a 5-3 fit, choose the 4-4 fit. On average, making the 4-4 suit trump will yield about one trick better than the 5-3 suit. Whatever losers exist in the 4-4 suit, they always exist regardless of whether that suit is trump. If the 5-3 side suit splits evenly, there will be a place to discard two losers from the other hand. If the 5-3 side suit splits poorly, you can usually ruff at least one of the losers.

Note that after an auction 1 ♠ - 2minor - 2 ♥ - 3 ♥, hearts are trump. Period, full stop. There is no reliable way to get back to a spade contract. Any subsequent spade bids are cue bids showing either an ace or a control, per your partnership agreement. Ditto for the auction 1 ♠ - 2 ♥ - 3 ♥; opener will raise hearts with three-card support, knowing that responder has five hearts and we've found an eight-card trump suit. 

This is why responder needs five hearts to bid 2 ♥ over 1 ♠; we can always ensure that we are locating an eight-card fit. 

When we have a choice of eight-card fits, we want to be in the 4-4 fit. At the bridge table, 44 is more!

-- Ray
Better Bridge in 5 Minutes. Guaranteed! (or the next one is free)