All News

No slip -ups!

It seemed fairly routine initially. South bid their major and North showed a strongish hand with lots of clubs before South ended the auction in 3NT. Soon, you were about to find a discard. What is it to be?

 

 

West led 2 and South took a little time to play J from dummy. Maybe they were thinking about the whole hand. You won A and returned 7, your original 4^th highest. Both South and West played low hearts.  Winning K in dummy, declarer laid down A ….and you?

The play of the high club may well have been to find a stray singleton queen in your hand before taking the club finesse. Maybe South held three small clubs and was considering whether to finesse or go for the drop on the third round?

With your partner’s original low heart lead (both South and West had followed to the second round of hearts), you have to presume that your partner, West, holds both Q and Q. If not, South would need very little in the other two suits to come to 9 tricks.

Say declarer held AQxx? It could be that they already have 4 spade tricks as your spade holding is an annoyance to the declarer but will not take any tricks.

What though that heart suit? Both South and West could still have started with 3 each and if West’s third heart is the queen, the suit is blocked. West could have hoped you held T and thrown their queen under the king on the second round of the suit. So, perhaps that is not the actual situation.

So, your discard is? It looks like a spade is safe in that it will not cost a trick, assuming West has both remaining hearts…but have they? As it happened, a spade was entirely safe. Our East did very well because there was one discard which would have given South their contract, a diamond. Strangely but safely, East discarded a potentially winning heart trick.

Beware the unbid minor!

 

You may not have a hold in the spade suit, or so you feared but you did have a hold in diamonds with a suit headed by the 8! Why did South not mention diamonds? It was unlikely, after a 1 opening, that the contract would be in diamonds. So, check on a major fit (1) and then if appropriate head off for no-trumps. Practical if not perfect bidding.

South had survived trick 1, a good guess. Had East thrown a diamond, then South would have been well-rewarded. Not today. South took three top diamond tricks and two more club tricks via the marked club finesse before finishing down two. Well defended, Henny Annabell. 

A sound discard from East. Preserve your 4-card suits if you can. One day, even the apparently least significant such suit might be worth preserving. Today was that day.

How Good is Your Hand?

 

You start off with rather an under-bid of 1, though in reality, there is no bid to describe your hand. Partner’s 2NT is what you would expect, 11-12 with a spade hold. What do you bid now?

Richard Solomon

Go Back View All News Items