By Phillip Alder

Irving Cohen said, "Truth is shorter than fiction."

There is a truth in bridge involving "shorter" -- it is highlighted by this deal. How would you try to make two diamonds after West leads the heart queen?

Your response was the modern one-no-trump forcing, which is used in conjunction with two-over-one game-forcing. With a minimum balanced hand, opener rebid in his three-card minor. Then you continued with two diamonds, showing a weak hand with a long suit. (Note that one no-trump goes down three with best defense.)

In a suit contract, count your losers by looking at your 13 cards and taking dummy's honors into account. Here, you have two in hearts, one or two in diamonds and two in clubs. If East has a diamond honor, you can probably get home, losing only one trump trick. But if West has both high diamonds, you are in danger. However, whenever you have a side suit with more cards in your hand than on the board, think about ruffing a loser in the shorter-trump hand.

Take the first trick with dummy's heart ace, play a heart to your king, and lead another heart. Suppose West wins and plays his last heart. You ruff with dummy's diamond jack and are safe, whether East could overruff or not.

Phillip Alder is teaching during the American Contract Bridge League's Sectional at Sea from July 19 to 26 aboard Cunard's Queen Elizabeth. The cruise starts and ends in Southampton, England, and goes to the Norwegian fjords and the North Cape. Details are at www.phillipalderbridge.com

Copyright 2011, United Feature Syndicate