SOUTH’s jump rebid of 3H was forcing to game because his partner’s response had been at the two-level. How would you play 4H when West leads the king of diamonds? The North-South hands were given in a book by an American author and his recommended line of play was to win the diamond lead, draw trumps and lead twice towards dummy’s spade honours, hoping that West would hold at least one of the missing honours. Needless to say, West did hold a spade honour in the diagram originally given and the author’s line of play therefore worked splendidly. He claimed it would work three quarters of the time-whenever West held a spade honour. What did you make of that? First of all, West would surely have led a spade if he held both spade honours. So, the recommended line would succeed only two thirds of the time. Secondly, it is a better line to attempt to set up dummy’s club suit for a discard. You win the diamond lead and cash two top clubs before playing on trumps. You then cross to the trump queen. If trumps are 4-0, you will have to draw trumps and resort to playing on spades. Otherwise you ruff a club high, cross to the trump nine and ruff another club high. You play a trump to the ten, drawing the last trump and score your tenth trick with the established club. This line gives you an 84 per cent chance.
What will you say now?
Answer
With a minimum hand the best tactic is to raise to 2S here. If you held 3 points more, you would rebid 2C, intending to bid 2S if partner gave preference to 2D. You will hear players say ‘I only raise with four-card support’ but this is considered somewhat old-fashioned nowadays. Nearly all experts are happy to raise with three-card support and a minimum hand.
SOUTH’s jump rebid of 3H was forcing to game because his partner’s response had been at the two-level. How would you play 4H when West leads the king of diamonds? The North-South hands were given in a book by an American author and his recommended line of play was to win the diamond lead, draw trumps and lead twice towards dummy’s spade honours, hoping that West would hold at least one of the missing honours. Needless to say, West did hold a spade honour in the diagram originally given and the author’s line of play therefore worked splendidly. He claimed it would work three quarters of the time-whenever West held a spade honour. What did you make of that? First of all, West would surely have led a spade if he held both spade honours. So, the recommended line would succeed only two thirds of the time. Secondly, it is a better line to attempt to set up dummy’s club suit for a discard. You win the diamond lead and cash two top clubs before playing on trumps. You then cross to the trump queen. If trumps are 4-0, you will have to draw trumps and resort to playing on spades. Otherwise you ruff a club high, cross to the trump nine and ruff another club high. You play a trump to the ten, drawing the last trump and score your tenth trick with the established club. This line gives you an 84 per cent chance.
With a minimum hand the best tactic is to raise to 2S here. If you held 3 points more, you would rebid 2C, intending to bid 2S if partner gave preference to 2D. You will hear players say ‘I only raise with four-card support’ but this is considered somewhat old-fashioned nowadays. Nearly all experts are happy to raise with three-card support and a minimum hand.