As soon as South responded 2NT, it was impossible for North-South to reach their optimum contract: a heart part-score. For a 3
bid by North over 2NT would be forcing.
Against 2NT, West led the
7 to East’s
K and East’s
10 return was covered by declarer’s
J and won by West’s
Q. West cashed the
A,
9, then
3, and switched to the
A and
3 to East’s
K. The defence had taken the first seven tricks. Down two.
What should have happened
Against 3
, East leads the
A and leads a second club.
Declarer trumps and plays carefully. He cashes the ace of trumps, crosses to the queen (West discarding a club), cashes the
K, crosses to the
A, then trumps a low spade with the king of trumps. He crosses back to his jack of trumps (drawing East’s ten), then tables the
Q (felling West’s
J) and the
6, a length winner. Nine tricks and contract made.
Tip 14
Bid a suit to a suit. Avoid jumping to 2NT over a one-of-a-suit opener.
Deal 15
Think of bidding as a conversation. A stratospheric leap in notrumps by responder at his first turn is premature and often causes headaches for opener.
What happened
Against 3NT West led the
4 to East’s
J, and declarer correctly delayed winning his
A until the third round, exhausting East of diamonds. With seven top tricks, he needed to establish the long spades without West winning the lead.
He crossed to dummy’s
Q and led a low spade to his king, and a second spade to the jack and ace. He led a third spade and hoped that it would be East who held the queen. No good: West won and cashed his two long diamonds. One down, unavoidably.
What should have happened
If South responds 2
. This shows that he has at least five spades (with 4–4 in the majors he would open 1
, and in any event 4–4 hands would open or rebid in notrumps). Knowing the partnership holds an eight-card spade fit, South jumps to 4
.
On the
Q lead, declarer wins the
A, cashes the ace-king of trumps, then, leaving the master trump outstanding, plays out his hearts. It does not matter that West can trump the third heart. Dummy’s remaining trump takes care of the fourth heart and ten tricks are made.
Tip 15
Wherever possible, bid a suit to a suit as responder. Do not leap to 3NT in response to a one-of-a-suit opener. It will probably give partner a problem.
Deal 16
Responder to a one-of-a-suit opener should bid a suit to a suit wherever possible, in order to locate a fit. A ‘one-over-one’ response (e.g. 1
– 1
) does NOT show more than four cards or more than six points. If you have enough to respond, then you have enough to change the suit at the one-level. There is a common misconception that a 1NT response is weaker than a one-of-a-suit response. Nonsense! The confusion arises because whereas there is no maximum point count for a one-over-one suit response, there is a maximum of nine points for a 1NT response. The 1NT response should only be made when you have a weak hand with no higher ranking four-card suit.
What happened
It is doubtful whether North would have bid even 2
if West had not been able to overcall 2
in search of the fit (that theoretically he could not have in the light of South’s failure to respond 1
