Vul:Both Dlr: South	K7  KQ10864  Q9  J63
9532  AJ7  5  A9754		864  532  J10863  K10
	AQJ10  9  AK742  Q82

West	North	East	South
			1
Pass	1	Pass	1
Pass	3	Pass	3NT
All Pass

South has a routine 1 opening bid. Should West overcall? I must be joking. Not even close! A two-level overcall (especially vulnerable) should be made only with a decent suit and roughly opening bid values. So, West passes and North has a normal response of 1. East-West are passing throughout. South’s rebid is definitely 1—not 1NT. South shouldn’t reason: “My partner has hearts and I have everything else, so I’ll bid notrump.” A 1NT rebid shows a balanced hand (no singletons or voids). South has more than a minimum, but not even close to enough to jumpshift to 2 (that would show something like 19-20 points and be forcing to game). After South’s 1, what is North’s second bid?

Responder’s jump

Any jump in a previously mentioned suit by the responder (at his first or second turn) is invitational. In this case the jump would be in a suit North already has bid, so it would show at least a six-card suit (and the suit should be decent). Since North has invitational strength (not quite enough to insist on game, but too much for only 2), the correct rebid is an invitational 3.

Should South go on? The singleton heart is a deterrent, but overall, the hand is more than minimum. South has a nice-looking 16-count with two good suits (spades and diamonds). Clubs are kind-of stopped, so let’s go with 3NT. North has already shown his hand, so he passes and 3NT is the final contract.

Opening Lead

With clubs the unbid suit and also West’s best suit, the lead is the 5, fourth from the longest and strongest.

The Play

In notrump, declarer counts sure tricks. There are seven off the top; four spades and three diamonds. This club lead will eventually result in an eighth trick. Declarer might get more tricks if diamonds split well, and can certainly play hearts to get at least a ninth trick.

The big moment on this deal comes at trick one. Declarer plays low from dummy and the spotlight is on East. Normally, with an honor in dummy that East can beat, third-hand saves a high one for dummy’s high one. Especially with the 10 to insert, that is what I would expect most East players to do. Unfortunately, on this layout, that is the losing play. Declarer wins the 10 with the queen and (maybe after trying some diamonds and seeing the bad split), plays a heart. West has the ace, but the clubs can’t run—they are blocked. Even if West guesses to win the A and underlead to the K, East will be out of clubs. The contract makes easily, possibly with overtricks.

What if East plays the K at trick one? Now the contract is defeated. East returns a club to the ace and West plays a third club. Now the clubs are ready to run. When West gets the A, he has two winning clubs for down one.

How can East know? If he can envision the actual layout (partner with five {or six} clubs headed by the ace and a sure entry), the K is the right play. However, it is hard to undo a lifetime of playing the 10 in this situation. Whenever declarer has the ace (picture A9 or A9x, for example), putting in the 10 saves a trick (playing the king ends up making dummy’s jack good).

I presented this exact deal and defensive problem to several of my peers and I got some votes for the 10 and some for the K. None of them were sure what to do. So, there are two ways you can think about this:
1) If even the game’s best players don’t know what to do, what hope is there for me?
2) This game is difficult; if even the best don’t always know what to do, I shouldn’t be hard on myself when I get something wrong.

Lesson points:

1) Opener rebids in a four-card major any time he is unbalanced.
2) If opener jump-shifts it shows approximately 19-20 in playing strength (game-forcing).
3) Responder’s jump rebid to the three-level is invitational only.
4) With an honor in dummy that third-hand can beat, third-hand usually withholds that honor.
5) Some problems in bridge (bidding or play) have no easy or “right” answer. In my opinion, that is what makes it a beautiful game.