Steve Jobs said, “Quality is more important than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles.”

However, at the bridge table, you are often better placed with a two-suited hand than with a one-suiter, because you get twice the chance to find a fit with your partner.

For the next two weeks, we are going to look at handling two-suiters in various situations.

If you open one of your higher-ranking five-card suit, and partner immediately raises, you should immediately upgrade your hand.

In this deal, North is right to make a limit raise of three spades. He counts one shortage point for each doubleton. Then South, with such a strong side suit, starts wondering about a grand slam; if partner has the spade ace-queen and diamond ace, South rates to take all of the tricks. But he cannot immediately use Blackwood, because he does not have a diamond control. South control-bids four clubs, then, when partner returns the compliment with four diamonds, South launches Roman Key Card Blackwood. When North shows two aces and denies the spade queen, South settles for the small slam.

After West leads the diamond king, how should declarer plan the play?

Since the opponents have established a diamond trick, South cannot afford to lose the lead until he has discarded dummy’s diamond five. So, he should cash the spade ace and king, then start running clubs, and discard that diamond on the third round. Here, it is a home run.