Hard To Tell

15^th August – Board 22: East/West Game. Dealer East.

Hands with mirror distribution are always ghastly in one way or another and although the East/West pair in the featured hand have oodles of points they can’t actually make game.

	North: S 10 9 4 H A 10 D 8 7 5 4 2 C Q J 8
West: S A J 3 H J 8 7 2 D J 10 9 C K 7 4		East: S K Q 6 H K Q 5 4 D K 6 3 C A 6 3
	South: S 8 7 5 2 H 9 6 3 D A Q C 10 9 5 2

West	North	East	South
	No	1H	No
2H	No	2NT	No
3NT	End

I know West has ten points but he also has ten losers so the raise to two hearts is quite enough. Now with a flat seventeen points East should bid 2NT (because partner might only have six), which West will presumably raise to game. If South leads a club the contract will fail, as it will on a spade lead if North switches to a club when in with the ace of hearts. On the surface it is hard to tell which game is the better. 3NT will certainly make if the diamond finesse works and the black suits are benign as only two heart tricks are needed while 4H needs both the diamond finesse and the hearts to behave.