A Little Knowledge

11^th November – Board 13: Game All. Dealer North.

Sometimes it is better not to know too much and that was certainly the case when this deal arose last Thursday. I was West and my partner opened 2S which I knew was weak. The only trouble was that I had no idea how we continued after that! Normally I would enquire with 2NT and the hand opposite would bid 3S showing eight or nine points and the ace and queen of trumps. (Two of the top three honours. I would be able to work out which.)

And then having been given the best answer possible it would be illogical not to bid a slam, which almost certainly requires the club finesse to work. Anyway as I was not in a regular partnership and I had no idea if we were playing Ogust – the clever convention mentioned above - our sequence was rather more curtailed:

West	North	East	South
	No	2S	No
3NT	End

A club seemed - and indeed was – the natural lead, but this gave away a trick and then the run of the spades squeezed South in the red suits. Perhaps I should have bid 6NT!