A typical session of bridge always includes some deals where it's difficult to find a decent trump suit. On others, you have the good fortune to find two fits. These auctions are usually less aggravating than the misfit deals, but your decisions are just as critical. You should welcome both types of problems because they offer the chance to use your judgment and make a more successful choice than other pairs.
In recent columns, we've focused on how to evaluate potential contracts when you have two 8-card fits. Although suit quality can be important, a good decision depends more on your analysis of how your trumps will be used in the play. If you have the strength for game or slam, the suit that is more equally divided in your two hands tends to offer more options for ruffing losers and managing trumps. That flexibility can be worth an extra trick or two, so it often pays to investigate the possibility of a 4-4 fit, even when you've already found a 5-3 or 6-2.
Can you do that with this hand after partner opens 1NT (15-17): ♠K1074 ♥K98654 ♦3 ♣102 ?
A heart fit is guaranteed, but you could also have a 4-4 spade fit that delivers more tricks. If your hand were stronger -- another ace, perhaps -- you would respond 2C and settle on 4H if partner doesn't show a 4-card spade suit. With values this thin, though, you can't check on everything. The best you can do is transfer to hearts and raise to 3H to invite.
If the transfer causes you to lose a spade fit, it's probably a blessing. The weaker your hand, the more important it is to opt for the safety of your longer suit. Taking ten tricks -- or even nine -- will require maintaining control of trump length, and that will be difficult in a spade contract if your hand has to ruff.
There are several other reasons to choose your 6-card suit with this type of hand:
Partner is more likely to hold three or four hearts than two. If you're stretching to game, you'd rather have nine trumps than eight.
Taking tricks with the long suit could be a problem in the 4-4 fit. Trumps are your only tricks outside hearts, and diamond forces or a poor spade break will run your hand out of entries. Even if partner can establish your hearts, they may be stranded.
With hearts as trump, your spade losers could disappear. If partner holds ♠A865, he can pitch two of your spades on his minor-suit winners.
If your contract requires a critical guess, it will usually be in the 4-4 suit. With the 4-4 as trumps, partner will have to make that guess early in the play. If it's a side suit, he can delay the decision until later when he has a better count of the opponents' hands.
A transfer immediately identifies your long suit. That gives partner more helpful information than Stayman if the opponents compete.
You'll find similar advantages in other situations where you hold 6-4 hands, including auctions where you aren't sure if you have any fit. Suppose your RHO opens 1NT and you hold ♠J109843 ♥AK95 ♦Void ♣J102. Do you show a spade one-suiter or a two-suiter with both majors?
Safety is a main concern here, too. Although the spades are topless, the length discrepancy argues for focusing on your long suit. On most layouts, your spades will have to provide tricks, and that will be easier if they're trumps. Hearts will play better only if partner has a lot of them and can set up the spades or play a cross-ruff.
A two-suited overcall also creates the risk of landing in a 4-3 or even 4-2 fit. Partner will bid hearts with equal length and be struggling (and grumbling) in 2H holding ♠Q2 ♥Q5 ♦Q10876 ♣K943.
In the next issue: Dummies and 8-card suits
© 2014 Karen Walker