BRIDGE

North dealer.

Both sides vulnerable.

On many deals, declarer is guided to the best line of play by information he has gained during the bidding. Opening bids, overcalls, preempts -- even the failure of the opponents to bid -- all can prove of great value.

Consider this case where South took advantage of East's bidding to bring in a contract that would very likely have failed had East not painted such a clear picture of his hand.

Declarer played low from dummy on the opening diamond lead, East inserting the nine. Had East taken the ace, South would have had 10 tricks.

After winning with the queen, declarer cashed the A-Q of spades and then led a heart toward his hand. East rose with the ace and returned the queen, attempting to short-circuit the possibility of being thrown in with a heart later and being forced to lead a diamond.

But South could not be denied. He had already concluded that East had to have at least five cards in each of the two suits he had bid. Since East had already shown up with two spades, he could not hold more than one club.

Accordingly, after taking the king of hearts, declarer made the key play of cashing the ace of clubs before leading the king of diamonds from dummy.

East won with the ace and cashed another diamond, but was then forced to lead a red card. This allowed South to discard the queen of clubs as he ruffed in dummy, and the contract was home.

There was nothing the defenders could do at any point to prevent this outcome. East's threediamond bid -- tactically questionable since it seemed likely that NorthSouth held the balance of strength -- simply gave away too much vital information.

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