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Hand played on |
5th April 2007 |
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Board number 13 |
Red Section |
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Dealer |
North |
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Vulnerability |
Both |
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Submitted by |
Nigel Cundy |
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North ♠ A3 ♥ QT653 ♦ A98 ♣ Q76 |
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West ♠ 942 ♥ J ♦ KT743 ♣ JT95 |
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East ♠ KJ7 ♥ K742 ♦ J5 ♣ K832 |
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North |
Bidding:
East |
South |
West |
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South ♠ QT865 ♥ A98 ♦ Q62 ♣ A4 |
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1NT 2♠ |
No No |
2♥ 3NT |
No End |
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This hand is perhaps more controversial than the ‘Blue Section’ 1NT opener on board 13 on April 5th. The alternative choice of opening is obviously 1♥, but if that bid is opened then there must be a planned re-bid – and that heart suit is of too poor quality to be re-biddable. I recognise that by opening 1NT then a 5-3 heart fit may be missed. To counter that point, there is also the possibility of avoiding having to play in 2♥ in a 5-2 - or even in a 5-1 - misfit. Furthermore, even with a 5-3 heart fit, a No Trump contract may yield as many tricks as the potential alternative heart contract. I would ALWAYS choose 1NT as the opening here, as indeed North chose at the table. Mind you, South’s jump to 3NT looks to be ambitious, and the ensuing 3NT contract appears to be a bit optimistic.
East chose a club lead rather than a heart, and that ran round to Declarer’s queen. Declarer had clearly read the textbooks, and recognised that the correct way of playing that heart suit is firstly to run the queen, and then to lead small to the nine if the first trick is taken by the King off-side. That line of play will yield four tricks in the suit unless the King and Jack are both off-side. As the cards lie, Declarer crashed the singleton Jack, and East mis-defended by covering with the King; holding King to four in front of Dummy’s Ace to three, the King is bound to win if East plays low three times. After that defence, Declarer cashed Dummy’s three winning hearts, then crossed to hand with the Ace of spades and cashed two more hearts. Declarer now played a small spade towards Dummy, and East was ‘fixed’. The Ace of clubs afforded another entry to Dummy to enjoy the long spades, and so Declarer amassed a total of five heart tricks, four spades, two clubs, and the Ace of diamonds – a total of twelve tricks, perhaps a flatteringly good result for what was a good original choice of opening bid.
The moral of the story – if you are playing the weak no trump style and you could open 1NT, then DO OPEN 1NT - even if your hand includes a poor 5-card major.