No Justice

27th June – Board 19: East/West Vul. Dealer South.

Sometimes the ‘best’ bid can turn out badly leaving the perpetrator nursing a strong sense of injustice. That certainly happened on the hand shown below.

	North: S A J 9 7 5 H J 9 4 D 10 9 8 6 4 C none
West: S 10 6 4 2 H K 7 5 3 D K 2 C A Q 5		East: S K Q 3 H A 10 6 2 D A 5 3 C J 7 4
	South: S 8 H Q 8 D Q J 7 C K 10 9 8 6 3 2

West	North	East	South
			3C
No	No	Dbl	No
4C	No	4H	End

The pre-empt is more or less sound for once as is East’s take-out double even though the shape of the hand is not altogether text-book. With an opening hand himself and a major fit somewhere West should find out the best strain by bidding 4C and East will close proceedings with a bid of 4H. Played from the East hand South will surely lead his singleton spade, won by North who returns a low spade indicating that he wants a switch to the lower rank suit – clubs. In this way the defence merrily take the first five tricks for a two trick defeat and indeed it would have been even worse if South had started with a club lead and North switched to spades. At some tables however West merely bid 3H over his partner’s double, an outrageous underbid surely, although this was raised to 4H an equally outrageous overbid. However played from the West side the likely lead of the D10 gives declarer an easy path to ten tricks. As an aside West might pass the double for penalties or even try 3NT, going to show how awkward pre-empts can be.