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Where is the Queen?

Find her in the right place and you make your contract. However, if she dares to win a trick, then your contract is doomed!Let's take a look.

 

After you open 1NT (14 and a half to 17 hcp!), West overcalls 2 to show both majors. East-West do not do any further bidding.  Via a slightly unusual route, you reach 5 played by South. West leads 10 to East’s king and your ace. You play three rounds of trumps (the third round to learn more about West's shape) with West’s holding being J8. East’s exits after winning the Q is J. Over to you.

With no evidence from opposition bidding, you would play a diamond to the king and follow with 10, succeeding as long as West holds the Q in no more than a 4-card suit. Easy game and hopefully a successful game. However, there is more evidence here. West has shown the major suits and held two clubs. There is a growing trend (maybe it has always been there) that “major suits” means 8+ cards in the majors, even against a strong no-trump opening. Purists would require 9+ cards.

Naturally, when quizzed, East said “at least 4-4 in the majors”. West could still have three diamonds. However, there is evidence that East has more diamonds than West, more chance of that Q being in the long suit…or is there?

Our South worked that out, laid down A (it would be shameful to lose to the singleton queen!) and played low to the 9. So, did the South player at another table after a similar start to the auction, though their contract was 3NT on a spade lead. While holding up spades for three rounds might work if East held Q and you finessed through West, it would only work if West started with 6 spades. Many players treat a hand with 6 spades and 4 hearts as a single-suiter not 2-suiter. Thus, the chances were strong that East in this deal had a fourth, maybe even a 5^th spade! West also could, of course, have held five cards in each major.  

However, there is one more piece of evidence. From the opening lead and play to trick 1, it was evident that West had only Q and no other honour. Add on the J and presumably KJ, is that enough to overcall a strong no trump in term of high-card points? Were the vulnerability have been different (East-West vulnerable, for instance), then the answer would almost certainly have been “no”. Knowing your left- hand opponent and their proneness to aggressive overcalls might help. In a vacuum, you might indeed have played diamonds the right way:

In this particular Teams match, neither declarer was successful. Would you have made your contract whether it was 3NT or 5 of a minor? It seems easy when looking at all four hands.

Jan’s Day: Just a matter of trumps.

 

West leads Q. Plan the play.

Richard Solomon

(apologies for the lateness of this, Tuesday's article, but I had no internet access on Tuesday. On the bright side, you have very little time to wait for the Wednesday article!)

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