Playing the Long Game - Deal of the Week #9

It was a big week of Lunch Time Bridge. On Wednesday I took over one hand from AP, and me and TB quickly bid up to 4♥. Then I saw JW putting away his cards before the end of the auction, and decided to try and punish his impudence with an immediate 6♥ bid. Me and dummy only had 22 points between us, but with a big trump fit and lots of distribution it finished 6♥+1.

But that's not the Deal of The Week. This comes from Friday, and features NC stealing a game. Here's the full deal:

S deal, Love all ♠ A J T x x ♥ T x ♦ J 9 8 x ♣ A x ♠ x x ♥ K Q x ♦ x x x ♣ K Q x x x 10 10 7 13 ♠ x x x ♥ x x x x ♦ A Q T ♣ J T x ♠ K Q x ♥ A J x x ♦ K x x ♣ x x x

W N E S 1♥ - 1♠ - 1NT - 2NT - 3♠ - 3NT - - -

South has a balanced 13 count. Playing a strong NT he opens one of a suit (here Hearts), then rebids 1NT over his partner's 1♠ bid. North has a 10 count, and made an invitational raise of 2NT. Should South accept the invitation? He's shown 12-14, and since he has a very flat 13 count, I'd say he's at the bottom of his range, and should pass. But he wanted to bid on, and so I advised him that better than just bidding 3NT is bidding 3♠, to show 3 card support, then North can bid 4♠ if he has five of them. North did have five, but preferred the nine trick 3NT game.

Looking at the North and South hands 3NT is pretty hopeless. In immediate tricks you've got 5 Spades, and two Aces, which only makes seven. You need two extra tricks. These could in theory come from Hearts, though Diamonds are a better shot. But surely the defence will take five tricks by then, if they get into the Clubs?

West lead a Club, which declarer ducked and East won with the Jack. East was then too eager to cash his winners, and took the ♦A then continued with the ♦Q, hoping his partner had the ♦K. Declarer was thus able to get three Diamond tricks, which along with his other seven winners was 3NT+1.

There's no rush for East to take his ♦A, and he does best to continue Clubs. Of course declarer will win this in dummy, but then East-West will get three more Club tricks. You've got to think long term in a No Trump contract.

Finally, how would North-South have done in 4♠? Even with the favourable Diamond position, you've still got to lose 2 Diamonds, along with 1 Club and 1 Heart, for 4♠-1. This is slightly better than 3NT though, which will either go one or two down.