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West leads the two of hearts to East’s king and back comes the heart six. How would you play 3NT when your queen is allowed to win? Suppose instead you play ace, king and another club. When clubs are 4-2, you will lose three hearts and two clubs, going down even when the spade king is onside. Suppose you run the club eight at Trick 3, losing to East’s queen. He may switch to spades and you will have to guess whether to finesse, before falling you know if clubs are 3-3. The best idea is to cross to a diamond and play a club to the eight, ducking a club trick into the safe hand. You will then have time to test the club suit before falling back on the spade finesse. It’s an instructive example of combining your chances in two different suits. What will you bid now? Answer
Awards: 3H-10, 3NT-6,
3S-4, 4D-3, Pass-2. |
What
would you respond on those North cards? The sequence IS-INT might lead
to a missed game when the opener holds 16 points. Playing a weak notrump.
North should stretch to a two level response whenever he wants to be in
game opposite 15-17 points.
Partner
has suggested around 16-18 points, so you have enough for game. It would
not be best to bid 3NT now because you have no stopper in clubs. A
better bid is 3H. There is no chance of a raise, since partner would
have rebid 2H if he held a strong hand with six diamonds and four
hearts. By bidding 3H, you give partner the chance to bid 3NT, with
something in clubs, or to give delayed support to your spades. (The main
deal last week contained this theme. Did you remember it?!)