Thursday Bridge Club: All Things Considered

5th August – Board 8: Love. Dealer West.

	North: S A Q 7 H A K J 3 D 7 3 C K 10 9 6
West: S K J 8 6 4 H Q 9 7 D Q 10 8 4 C 3		East: S 2 H 6 4 2 D K J 9 5 2 C 8 7 5 4
	South: S 10 9 5 3 H 10 8 5 D A 6 C A Q J 2

Looking at the two hands shown above wouldn’t you think that everyone would play in 3NT? Yet mysteriously the contracts ranged from five clubs making with an overtrick, to four hearts either making plus one or going down, to four spades minus two. One pair did reach 3NT but with a dodgy sequence I thought. Why on earth wouldn’t it just go like this: -

West	North	East	South
No	1H	No	1S
No	2NT	No	3H*
No	3S**	No	3NT
End

* South is just asking if partner’s 2NT rebid contains a five-card heart suit, and if so to prefer 4H to 3NT. South will obviously only have three cards in support or he would have raised immediately. The bid is of course forcing to game.
** In similar fashion opener denies having five hearts but in turn is asking if his partner has a five-card spade suit, in which case the correct contract would be 4S. Again North would only have three card support because he would have raised immediately if he had more.

The play in 3NT is interesting on a diamond lead. With only eight tricks on top it would appear that the fate of the contract depends on a successful finesse in either spades or hearts, but declarer can combine his chances to some extent by playing off the ace and king of hearts first. If the queen of hearts is doubleton in either hand then there is no need for a finesse at all. As it happens the contract is essentially declarer proof.

2 comments:

Tony Lock9 August 2010 at 12:46
As the culprit for 4S - 2, we got to 2NT then Chris bi 3NT and I paniced over my two small diamonds and thought with AQx of partners suit I should put him into that.
Dave9 August 2010 at 14:44
Yes, I saw that. As I say though I think Chris should have bid 3H to give you the chance of bidding 3S, then all possibilities are taken into account. You sort of double-crossed yourself in the end. 4S isn't the worse contract in the world, but a bit unlucky with the break. And the couples who were in 4H had no trouble by and large, where things were much more friendly.

If using the 'Anonymous' option for adding a comment please write your name in the comment box so we all know who has commented. You will also need to copy the word shown before you can publish your comment (to reduce spam.) Thanks, Dave.