This deal comes from Thursday 9/12/2021. Perhaps not surprisingly, the final contract almost always was 4S by East, even though a 5C sacrifice should be found without too much difficulty. That is, if NS play “Truscott” and North uses his or her imagination rather than follows what the book says. Let me show you the deal so you can judge for yourself.
Board 3 Dealer S EW Vul
What happened at every table but one, was a 1C opening from South, double from West, pass from North and then 4S from East. Fairly normal bidding I guess. But one North, when West doubled, bid 2C! That was taking ‘Truscott’ to an extreme, but North could see no harm in it, even though NS were playing ‘5 card spades’ and the 1C opening could have been on a three card suit. What harm could come from it? None, surely. But the up side of the bid was that when East bid 4S, South had an easy decision to sacrifice in 5C, despite three potential tricks on defence. A fourth defensive trick was possible but unlikely given that North had announced very little. When South did bid 5C, the EW pair were somewhat fixed, and East made the best decision and bid on to 5S rather than doubling.
That is when South had the opportunity to reward North’s enterprise by making the killing opening lead, which is of course a low heart. Unfortunately that is not easy to find, in fact impossible I would suggest. Normal defence against 4S is to lead the singleton diamond and hope for a second round ruff. That requires an entry to North’s hand. But against 5S things might look different. If North has supported clubs South could hope to lead a low club to partner’s king for that vital diamond ruff, still justifying the diamond lead. But South has two certain tricks (if the CA wins) and a potential in the king of hearts, so a different approach may be better. If South cashes the club ace at trick one and sees dummy, as well as North’s spade void on the first lead of trumps, South just might now switch to a heart, especially if North can help with an encouraging signal in hearts. Is all that unrealistic? Replay this board by clicking here.
Q432
T87532
T92