This was dealt by Suzi Subeck
| Vul:NS Dlr: South |
 QJ107 AKQ97 -- AK42 |
|
| 6432 6 AK976 963 |
85 J105432 104 QJ5 |
|
| AK9 8 QJ8532 1087 |
| West | North | East | South |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
1NT | ||
| Pass | 2 |
Pass | 3 |
| Pass | 3NT | Pass | Pass |
| All Pass |
The Bidding:
North has a very strong hand, but when considering a 2 opening, think about how the rest of the bidding will go. With difficult hands to describe (two- or three-suited) it is generally best to start bidding the suits right away. Opening 2 gets the auction too high too quickly and it can be difficult to describe such a hand as North’s. Meanwhile, it is very unlikely to go 1-P-P-P and even when it does, a game isn’t necessarily missed.
In this column, I always use the modern 2/1 Game Forcing system. Accordingly, South isn’t strong enough for a 2 response. His 1NT response is up to about 12 points. Even though many players treat the 1NT response as “forcing” I prefer that it can end the auction (confusingly referred to as “semi-forcing.”). Ugh.
Of course, North has no intention of passing. He starts to show his other suits. Should he jumpshift in clubs (game forcing) or reverse into spades? The majors have priority, so 2 it is. This “reverse” is forcing (not necessarily to game, but responder is not allowed to pass). If you have trouble with reverses, I suggest a Google search (but make sure you include something about bridge or with my name, or you will get all sorts of useless knowledge about things going backwards).
After North's 2, South bids naturally, so shows his diamonds. This is of no interest to North. Not wanting to show his clubs (it is a bit late to locate a club fit anyway) and not wanting to bypass 3NT, North bid the game in notrump.
South knows that North has a good hand (more than 17 or so), but should quit. This is a misfit. South’s long suit is diamonds and North seems to have everything else. South passes and West is on lead.
The Opening Lead:
West’s best suit is diamonds, but with South showing that suit, it is not an attractive choice. Clubs is the unbid suit and not only that, it is dummy who rates to have the strength. South showed a diamond suit and North still bid notrump, so must be well-prepared for clubs. Leading through strength (especially from weakness) is desirable. As to which club West leads, that is a matter of partnership agreement. From three small cards, some lead second highest, but let’s go with “top of nothing” – the 9.
The Play:
In notrump, declarer should count top tricks. There are four in spades, three in hearts and two in clubs—so this is easy to make. However, at matchpoint scoring, overtricks are important. How should we try for more than nine tricks?
The two suits we might work on are clubs or hearts. From the 9 lead, we expect the QJ to be with East. If it is QJx (a 3-3 break) we get an extra trick there. But, if they are 4-2 (with East holding QJxx), we have only the two tricks we started with.
What about hearts? If they are 4-3 we can take the top hearts and give up a heart—yielding that important overtrick. On a great day, they are 4-3 with the three being J10x—and we get five heart tricks (which is also true if there is J10 doubleton). Also, a 5-2 break is okay if the two includes the jack or ten; it will fall under the ace-king and then we can drive out the other high one with the Q97.
We don’t want to try clubs first, because if we set up a trick or two there for the defense, it might be too late to knock out a heart. Accordingly, we win the A and start with the top hearts, but do a double-take on the second round. East shows out! So much for hearts. But, all is not lost. Now we can try the clubs. Either king and another or ducking one now reveals the 3-3 club break and we get our overtrick there. The defense can switch to diamonds (when in with their club), but all they can take is two tricks, +630 and a good board for North-South.
Lesson Points:
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