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Bridge
The deal comes from a Seniors match played between France and Germany. South opened with a strong club and North’s subsequent 3H showed a good fit for spades and four controls (where an ace is 2 controls and a king is I). A diamond lead would have given declarer no chance but West led the queen of hearts, won with the ace. It may seem that all depends on the club finesse. Declarer drew one round of trumps with the ace. Since he would have to lose a club trick anyway, nothing was to be lost by cashing the ace of clubs first. Pierre Adad was interested to see the nine fall from East. He drew the remaining trumps and led a second round of clubs towards dummy’s queen. West followed with the jack, hoping to give the impression of an initial K-J-3. After long thought the French declarer played low from dummy. The bare king dropped from East and the slam was made. Declarer must have reasoned that if East had started with 10-9 doubleton, he would have played the ten on the first round (hoping to simulate K-10 doubleton). Answer You should open 2NT, despite the low doubleton in hearts. If there is a spade fit, partner will find it. If you are raised to 3NT the most likely place for partner’s values is in hearts. The problem with opening at the one-level is not so much that it will be passed out but that you will not be able to express your values David Bird — Knight Features
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