Its Own Reward

28th July – Board 5: N/S Vul. Dealer North.

Now and again a textbook play comes along and while in the books they always work in reality virtue sometimes has to be its own reward. I don’t know whether you would feel up to opening that North hand or not and I only would if I was allowed to bid 1NT if partner responded 1H. Not ideal but that’s what they do these days. Anyway East would doubtless overcall with a number of hearts, two or three depending on his mood, and South would almost certainly close proceedings with a bid of everyone’s favourite contract.

West	North	East	South
	1C	2H	3NT
End

Assuming West leads a spade declarer can see that he not only needs to make a bundle of club tricks but that he cannot afford to lose two in the process. If the suit divides 3-3 the odds are even whether you should play low to the ten or low to the queen after cashing the ace first. However if they divide 4-2 then you can only cater for East holding doubleton jack, and you do that by cashing the ace and then leading towards the queen. It is true that if East holds doubleton king it is better to lead low towards the ten but you still would have to lose a trick to the jack. As you can see the correct line leads to an incorrect result which might suggest that perhaps North shouldn’t open after all.