Trust Truscott

“Truscott” is a very useful convention, whichever way you play it. When East opens 1H and South doubles, West bids THREE hearts instead of just 2H. That is how the original version of Truscott worked: when you have a fit for partner and an opponent makes a takeout double, raise to one level higher than you would normally, and the 2NT bid now replaces a normal raise to three. Simple enough and very useful.

Board 8 from Thursday 17/01/2019
Dealer N Nil Vul

	A964 Q5 965 J752
KT7 J864 QT73 43		J3 AKT9732 42 A9
	Q852 AKJ8 KQT86

Some players are so enamoured of the convention that they do it even without an intervening double, but let’s leave it the original way that Alan Truscott intended it. So, South doubles and West bids 3H. Is North strong enough to bid 3S now? It’s a close call since South’s double has pretty well guaranteed a four card spade suit, and a bid of 3S from North is not overly aggressive given the conditions. The end result on this board may well be a case of ‘who dares wins’, which often is the case when you have two competing hands in opposition.

Then it becomes a question of defence. Deep Finesse tells us that only 3S makes if North plays it but South can make 4S. The reader can try and figure out why. Against 4H by East, South may mis-defend and try to cash two top diamonds, which won’t happen if NS have a decent signalling system. Replay this board by clicking here.

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Happy New Year and best wishes for better bridge and better results!