Vil on 20WED
From Wednesday 18 May (Wk20 Wed). Board 5 Dealer N NS Vul
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854
T52
QJT8
KT8Isn't it great to get a fantastic hand like West has? If you do, make the most of it, and by that I don't mean bid a slam no matter what. Just ensure that you get the most out of it given any information you can obtain from partner.
After three passes, West has the obvious 2C opening. East responds with a negative 2D, which shows fewer than 7 high card points. It is now that West should give up any hope of a slam, it is highly unlikely that with eight top tricks in the West hand, East can contribute enough for slam. Looking at your losers helps in such a situation. With such a solid heart suit, it is almost certain that the fifth heart, the eight, will also come good, so you might consider bidding 4H.
But think again.
While I would not normally recommend playing No Trumps with that sort of hand, what will happen in a) a 4H contract or b) in 3NT? If you can make five heart tricks, you will have a total of NINE tricks whatever partner puts down in dummy, and if partner has a total bust, you will make nine tricks whether you are playing with hearts as trumps or in No Trumps. You could bid 2H just to see what partner does next but with an unfamiliar partner, unless you can trust him or her implicitly, the danger in that is that partner may just pass 2H with absolutely nothing.
Yes, partner MUST NOT pass a sequence like 2C-2D-2H but......
So, just settle for 3NT and take your nine tricks and anything else that may come your way, and as it happened, things CAN come your way, especially if North makes an awful opening lead, which some Norths in fact did.
Some led the EIGHT of diamonds against either 4H or 3NT. Leading 'fourth highest' as some learners have been taught, is absolutely atrocious when you have a sequence of three top cards and your fourth is likely to give a trick away to a higher in between card, as it does in this case if declarer bothers to put up the nine from dummy. The results were not happy ones for the optimistic pairs who played in slams, and those who did play in 4H or 3NT did not make the best of the situation because they made ONLY four when making FIVE should have been easy. After the PROPER lead of the QUEEN of diamonds, declarer wins and, seeing the potential of a spade trick in dummy (the king), UNBLOCKS the ace from hand and looks for an entry to dummy. There is only one possible entry and that is the queen of clubs. It is perfectly safe to lead a low club towards the queen in dummy while you still have the ace. That works and declarer wraps up eleven easy tricks for a top board.
Bridge really is an easy game, isn't it?
