The deal comes from an old text-book. You arrive in 3 NT after East has opened 1S and West leads the five of spades. How would you play the contract? The line proposed by the learned author was to win the third spade and play three rounds of diamonds. East can spare a heart on the second round of diamonds but he has no good card to throw on the third round. He is squeezed in three suits. If he throws a heart or a club, you have your extra trick directly. If instead he throws a spade, you can set up a long club. You will lose just three spades and one club in the process. It often happens that writers construct a hand to demonstrate one line of play and overlook that the contract can be made with a much simpler technique. Do you see what the easier line is on this deal? After winning the third round of spades, exhausting West of the suit, you can cross to dummy with a diamond and run the ten of clubs into the safe West hand. Even if this loses to the jack, the contract will be secure. You will score four club tricks to go with three diamond tricks and the two major-suit aces. As the cards lie, you will end with an overtrick.
What will you say now?
Answer
With five trumps you should make a pre-emptive raise of partner’s suit. Often you would leap to 4S, since you expect to hold 10 trumps between the hands. The Law of Total tricks suggests that you should therefore contest to the 10-trick level. Here you are very weak with no side-suit singleton and 3S is enough. Partner will expect a weak hand with long trumps. If instead you held a high-card raise to 3S you would start with a cuebid of 2D.
Awards: 3S-10, 4S-6, 2S-4, Pass-2.
The deal comes from an old text-book. You arrive in 3 NT after East has opened 1S and West leads the five of spades. How would you play the contract? The line proposed by the learned author was to win the third spade and play three rounds of diamonds. East can spare a heart on the second round of diamonds but he has no good card to throw on the third round. He is squeezed in three suits. If he throws a heart or a club, you have your extra trick directly. If instead he throws a spade, you can set up a long club. You will lose just three spades and one club in the process. It often happens that writers construct a hand to demonstrate one line of play and overlook that the contract can be made with a much simpler technique. Do you see what the easier line is on this deal? After winning the third round of spades, exhausting West of the suit, you can cross to dummy with a diamond and run the ten of clubs into the safe West hand. Even if this loses to the jack, the contract will be secure. You will score four club tricks to go with three diamond tricks and the two major-suit aces. As the cards lie, you will end with an overtrick.
With five trumps you should make a pre-emptive raise of partner’s suit. Often you would leap to 4S, since you expect to hold 10 trumps between the hands. The Law of Total tricks suggests that you should therefore contest to the 10-trick level. Here you are very weak with no side-suit singleton and 3S is enough. Partner will expect a weak hand with long trumps. If instead you held a high-card raise to 3S you would start with a cuebid of 2D.