Your Call 22

What part of “Fourth Suit Forcing” do people not understand? It seems very simple to me, but clearly not so simple to some others. Even natural bidding without any need for the confusion of the idea of the fourth suit should land EW on this deal in 4H and not the very much inferior 3NT or 4S. But let’s see this full deal:

Board 14 from Thursday 22/05/2025
Dealer E Nil Vul

	K54 KQJ T843 T93
QJT872 A743 KJ J		9852 AQ762 AQ72
	A963 T6 95 K8654

East opens 1D, West responds 1S and East rebids 2C. I think we’re all in agreement that this is a normal Acol auction. But now some Wests have become aware of the fact that a bid of 2H might be interpreted as ‘fourth suit forcing’, which of course it is, so some Wests might now try and distort the bidding by bidding 3NT or 3S instead of the obvious 2H.

Let’s think about it: if you have an agreement about ‘fourth suit forcing’ does it make any sense to have it as anything other than that, and not asking for anything in particular. Realistically, in this sequence, 2H is more than likely to be a four card suit, but whatever the case, East can now give a perfect description of their own hand by raising to 3H. What part of 0454 will West not understand? And when West gets the raise and knows they have a heart fit with a spade void in the East hand, can there be any doubt about the final contract?

Another consideration: as I have often said, an opening bid opposite an opening bid should be bid to game, so West can either jump to 3H (after 1D-1S-2C) to announce a definite four card suit, or simply bid 2H as fourth suit and take it from there.

The play in 4H seemed to be beyond most of the declarers, but you don’t need to be DF to have a proper technique. Let’s say you get the most likely lead of the ten of clubs. You must keep the trumps under control and hope they break 3-2, which is much more likely than 4-1 anyway. With a great side suit in diamonds, win the CA and immediately DUCK a trump. North wins and continues clubs. You ruff the club in hand, now cash your ace of hearts, leaving the top trump with North, and then go about your business. Take the KJ of diamonds, ruff a spade in dummy, and now play all your diamonds, letting North have the top trump whenever. That, if we count, adds up to ten tricks, the two trump losers and a spade at the end. That is why we should always look for a 4-4 trump fit. Q.E.D.