14th April 2021


Dealer West
S
Q652
   
Game All
H
A952
   
    D 1064
   
    C Q8
   
S
AJ9843
    S
10
H
Q104
    H
K873
D
J
    D
532
C
K103
    C
J9764
    S
K7
   
    H
J6
   
    D
AKQ987
   
    C
A52
   

South
West
North
East

2S Pass
Pass
3NT
Pass Pass Pass

This deal is from the Bramhall and Cheadle duplicate pairs last night.

West's opening bid of two spades came round to South who had an interesting choice.
Three diamonds seems inadequate with such a good hand, double followed by three diamonds would show this sort of strength, but partners have an annoying habit of bidding hearts if you double.  So this left two or three notrumps.  The hand is a bit too strong for two notrump, so South bid game.  Obviously this could go horribly wrong on a heart lead to the ace and a spade return, but it seems worth the gamble.

When West led the ace of spades South easily made ten tricks for a good score.  A heart lead is more challenging but South can hold up hearts for a couple of rounds and make nine tricks for a reasonable board.