You Never Know

16th June – Board 8: Love All. Dealer West.

Picking up the North hand you might expect you were in for an easy time with little chance to do anything wrong. Well you never know.

West	North	East	South
No	No	2S	Dbl
No	2NT	No	3NT
End

East seems to have a perfect weak 2S third in hand making South no doubt somewhat aggrieved. It’s always best to start with a take-out double in these situations because a slam cannot be ruled out – indeed if you swap the West and North hands then you would hope to reach 7D. As it is North would respond with 2NT, Lebensohl of course, asking for partner to remove to 3C which he would either pass or bid 3H. Of course South would be wary of playing in a part-score and bid 3NT, so the hapless North would find himself at the wheel. There is little chance of this succeeding with that dummy on display and it only goes to show how much better it is if the points are more equally divided between the two hands.