Canada's Joey Silver is well known not only as a top class player but also as one of the best panellists taking part in the bidding features of several bridge magazines. He dropped into the Daily News office to provide details of the following deal from the first qualifying session of the Société Générale Open Pairs Championship. It featured an excellent bidding sequence.

Board 2. Dealer East. EW Love ª A K 9 6 4 3 2 © 10 4 ¨ Q 7 § J 3 ª 5 ª J 7 © K 9 6 © A 8 5 ¨ A 10 9 8 ¨ K 6 4 3 § A K 8 7 4 § Q 9 6 5 ª Q 10 8 © Q J 7 3 2 ¨ J 5 2 § 10 2 West North East South Gitelman Silver Pass Pass 1§ 2ª Dble Pass 3¨ Pass 4§ Pass 4© Pass 5¨ All Pass

After Fred Gitelman opened with a natural 1§ North made a weak jump overcall of 2ª. He probably considered bidding 3ª but the vulnerability and his poor 7-2-2-2 shape were strong factors. Joey Silver made a negative double that by agreement promised real values.

As an aside, many partnerships now play that in this situation a redouble by South would promise a high spade honour but this was clearly not an appropriate moment.

Fred introduced his diamond suit and Joey showed his primary support for clubs. When Fred now bid 4© it was clear his shape was 1-3-4-5. The obvious bid was 5§ but Joey realised that the fifth club in his partner's hand would provide a potentially vital discard. That enabled him to find the winning bid of 5¨.