~A 2C Opener
North
S AQT7
H KQJT
D Q8
C AKJ
West East
S 964 S K2
H A6 H 852
D AJT2 D K3
C T987 C Q65432
South
S J853
H 9743
D 97654
C —
Bidding Commentary
N E S W
2C P 2D P
2NT P 3C P
3H All Pass
With 22 HCP, North should open 2C. South, with limited values, should respond 2D. North next bids 2NT, showing 22-24 HCP and a balanced hand. Rather than pass, South should bid 3C (Stayman) and pass any response (here, 3H).
Lead and Defense Commentary:
East leads a heart
Play Commentary:
Even if the spade finesse fails, North should win 3 spade tricks, 3 heart tricks, 2 club tricks and a club ruff for nine tricks. Hoping to eliminate or limit ruffs in either N-S hand, East should lead a trump. West takes the trump A and leads back the suit. South would like to ruff two diamonds in dummy, but East takes the first diamond lead and leads the last outstanding trump, effectively holding N-S to 5 trump tricks.
NOTE: the two hands combined contain only 14 Loser Count; the hand will make 4H with a successful spade finesse and a good trump split. Here, the spade K is offside.
January 2, 2012 at 1:03 pm |
I take it that N bid the 3H and not W as in the text.
January 15, 2015 at 1:32 pm |
Yes, of course. Corrected. TU.