13
February 2016 English Bridge
The lead is consistent with a three or four card
holding. So it is just possible that West began with a
1-3-4-5 shape, and a singleton honour in spades.
This would be a very specific layout to choose to
play for, as against many layouts where the spades
are more evenly divided with East holding two
honours. Your final clue comes from the cards that
East played in diamonds. If he began with Q-?-4-2,
it would be normal to return the original fourth
highest - the two. If East had just three diamonds,
West would have K-10-8-7-5, and would have
begun with the seven. When East returned the four
and followed with the two, it looks more probable
that East began with five, so cannot hold five spades.
Play a spade to the nine, and keep your fingers
crossed! This was the full deal:
´ 10 7 4
™ A Q 10 3
t A 9 3
® A K 4
´ 8 6 2 ´ Q J 3
™ 9 6 5 ™ 8 7
t K 10 5 t Q 8 7 4 2
® 8 7 3 2 ® 10 6 5
´ A K 9 5
™ K J 4 2
t J 6
® Q J 9
N
W E
S
Heather's hints:
1 A Jacoby 2NT over one of a major shows game
values and four card support. It is highly
recommended as these hands are otherwise
rather unwieldy, and space-consuming to
describe, which may leave you short of room
to investigate a slam.
Using 2NT as a natural response is
unnecessary and undesirable in any case. It is
better to respond in a four card minor suit
with invitational balanced hands since this
leaves room to establish whether there is a
five-three major suit game available.
2 When you have a crucial decision to make in a
suit, leave it until the last possible moment,
gathering as much evidence as you can along
the way. Remember to look carefully at the
small cards played in other suits if you want to
get a count on the hand. r
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