EAST makes a weak jump overcall, which will not be particularly weak when he is vulnerable. You propel yourself into 6NT and West leads the eight of hearts, covered by the nine and ten. How will you play the contract? You win the heart lead with the queen and run the jack of spades to East’s king. East clears the hearts and all now depends on you reading the lie of the spades. If West started with Q-x-x in the suit, you will have to finesse on the second round. If instead East started with K-Q doubleton, you must play for the drop. Which is it to be? As on many such deals, you should delay the critical guess until the last moment. You should first attempt to get a count on the hand. In other words, you try to determine the defenders’ shape. When you play four rounds of diamonds and two rounds of clubs, you discover that East is 3-1 in those suits. From East’s 3H bid and West’s lead of the eight of hearts followed by the two, it is reasonable to assume that East holds seven hearts. So, his shape is 2-7-3-1. You lead then ten of spades and (after a cruel few seconds of thought, to raise the defenders’ hopes!) you play dummy’s ace of spades. Down comes East’s queen and the slam is yours.
What will you rebid on
the West cards?
Answer Playing Acol, you have no problem. You can invite game by jumping to 3S, which is a limit bid. In American systems such a jump is usually played as forcing, even if the original 2C response was not forcing to game. You would therefore have to decide between 2S, 3S and 4S, according to how you evaluated the hand. Playing 3S as forcing may assist you on potential slam deals. It is a handicap when trying to decide if game is worth bidding.
EAST makes a weak jump overcall, which will not be particularly weak when he is vulnerable. You propel yourself into 6NT and West leads the eight of hearts, covered by the nine and ten. How will you play the contract? You win the heart lead with the queen and run the jack of spades to East’s king. East clears the hearts and all now depends on you reading the lie of the spades. If West started with Q-x-x in the suit, you will have to finesse on the second round. If instead East started with K-Q doubleton, you must play for the drop. Which is it to be? As on many such deals, you should delay the critical guess until the last moment. You should first attempt to get a count on the hand. In other words, you try to determine the defenders’ shape. When you play four rounds of diamonds and two rounds of clubs, you discover that East is 3-1 in those suits. From East’s 3H bid and West’s lead of the eight of hearts followed by the two, it is reasonable to assume that East holds seven hearts. So, his shape is 2-7-3-1. You lead then ten of spades and (after a cruel few seconds of thought, to raise the defenders’ hopes!) you play dummy’s ace of spades. Down comes East’s queen and the slam is yours.
Answer