LET’s have a bit of fun today! You open 4NT, asking partner to name any ace that he holds. After a 5C reply, denying any ace, you would rebid 6D. No, it’s your lucky day and partner admits to the ace of spades. You bid 7NT, impressing everyone at the table, and West leads the jack of spades. How will you play the contract? Everything will be fine unless the diamond suit breaks 4-0. Rather than testing the diamonds immediately, you should prepare a possible escape route to deal with that situation. Win the spade lead with dummy’s ace and play the spade queen, throwing the ace of hearts away. Continue with dummy’s three top hearts, throwing the A-K-Q of clubs away. Now play the jack of clubs. By good fortune the ten of clubs falls singleton. You can now run six more rounds of clubs, discarding diamonds from your hand. At this stage dummy has won the first twelve tricks! At Trick 13 you lead the three of diamonds to your ace and are delighted to see that all your brilliant work has paid off. The diamond suit did indeed break 4-0. Without the fiesta of unblocking, you would have wasted your splendid hand and gone down.
What will you respond on the West cards?
Answer The best response is the clearest: a raise to 2H. Suppose you bid 1S instead and partner rebids two of a minor. You can only say 2H at your second turn and you will not have told partner that you have four-card support. To jump to 3H at your second turn would be an overbid and, even then, you would not have shown four-card support. When have support and are relatively weak, show the support immediately.
LET’s have a bit of fun today! You open 4NT, asking partner to name any ace that he holds. After a 5C reply, denying any ace, you would rebid 6D. No, it’s your lucky day and partner admits to the ace of spades. You bid 7NT, impressing everyone at the table, and West leads the jack of spades. How will you play the contract? Everything will be fine unless the diamond suit breaks 4-0. Rather than testing the diamonds immediately, you should prepare a possible escape route to deal with that situation. Win the spade lead with dummy’s ace and play the spade queen, throwing the ace of hearts away. Continue with dummy’s three top hearts, throwing the A-K-Q of clubs away. Now play the jack of clubs. By good fortune the ten of clubs falls singleton. You can now run six more rounds of clubs, discarding diamonds from your hand. At this stage dummy has won the first twelve tricks! At Trick 13 you lead the three of diamonds to your ace and are delighted to see that all your brilliant work has paid off. The diamond suit did indeed break 4-0. Without the fiesta of unblocking, you would have wasted your splendid hand and gone down.
Answer