Avoidance Play

13^th January – Board 21: N/S Vul. Dealer North.

How would you play 3NT from the East hand on the lead of the king of hearts? There are two possibilities I suppose, one of which is to let the defence win the first trick hoping that hearts are 6-2 and then try to make sure that it is North – the player out of hearts – who has to win the second round of diamonds. A better line I think is to win the first trick in dummy and then lead a low diamond, playing the nine from hand when North plays low. South will win but cannot player another heart without setting up a trick for declarer in that suit. Note that playing ace and then a small diamond from hand is just not good enough because it would be a simple matter for South to jettison his king under the ace! How would he know? Well if declarer had the queen of diamonds as well as the ace he would certainly have taken the finesse so the queen of diamonds is marked in the North hand.

As an aside I think that if West raises 1NT to 2NT then East is certainly worth bidding game. 2NT essentially asks opener to pass if he is minimum, not to bid game if he is maximum. East has poor impletion it is true, but the three aces and the five card suit should tilt the balance into bidding game. Some Souths led the nine of hearts, fourth best, but this is wrong as the suit can be treated as a near-sequence.