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What would you open?
With eight clubs, and the spade king, the hand is not really suitable for a Gambling 3NT opening. If 3NT can be made, it will be better to have your partner as the declarer. Some players would open 5C but this is too likely to lead to a minus score when the opponents have nothing to make their way. I like best a simple 1C opening, to see how the land lies. Awards: 1C-10, 3NT-7, 5C-6. — Knight Features |
North’s
raise to 4D was slightly risky because South might have ‘invented’ a
reverse on a 3-card suit. The alternative was to bid 2H, fourth suit
forcing, intending to show the diamond support later. There was nothing
wrong with the final contract, however. West led the queen of hearts,
won in the South hand. How would you have played the slam? The contract
can be made with a successful finesse in either clubs or spades. Rather
than simply guessing which 50 per cent chance to take. You should aim to
combine more than one chance on this type of hand. You should try to
drop one black-suit queen, falling back on a finesse in the other suit
if unsuccessful. Here the best chance of dropping a queen lies in the
club suit. The queen will fall on two fifths of the 3-2 breaks and one
fifth of the 4-1 breaks. If the ace and king of clubs do not cause the
queen to show, you will fall back on the spade finesse. Two chances are
better than one and here it is the extra chance (playing for the drop)
that will bring home the slam.
