Last week I played the featured hand at a local club in Scotland. It has a number of instructive points both in the bidding and the subsequent play.

East's opening bid of 3♦ is standard, and is close to a gambling 3NT opening, showing a solid minor suit and nothing else. What should West bid? Well he could close his eyes and bid 3NT, which as it happens works perfectly this time. Most Wests in the room like myself were very concerned that the diamond suit would not run, and that there would be no entry in East's hand even if the diamond suit could be established quickly enough. With possible alternative games of 4H and 5D, I decided to be constructive and bid 3H. The 3H bid should be unconditionally forcing. Why? It makes absolutely no sense for this bid to be a rescue bid. In a rescue situation how often would 3H play any better than 3D? Very few indeed I would suggest. It should be noted that If you do play 3H as a rescue bid in this situation, then it should be alerted as a non forcing bid! With 3 cards in hearts East was happy to raise the bidding to 4H, but what should East have bid if there was no fit for hearts. How about 3NT! Surely after the 3D opening this would now suggest not only no fit for hearts but a very good diamond suit which made the hand close to a gambling 3NT opening in the first place. But alas East was not put on the spot to find this inspirational bid! 

After the 9♣ opening lead, how should West play the hand? In his own hand he potentially has 6 black suit losers and a probable loser in the heart suit assuming a 3/2 break.The two losing clubs can be ruffed in dummy, one of the spade losers can be discarded on a diamond winner, and one of the three remaining potential spade losers will go away if the A♠  turns up in South's hand. But there is also another chance of getting rid of a spade loser if declarer can force the defender's hand with the 3 cards in hearts to ruff the third diamond. A losing spade can then be thrown on the top diamond whilst the defender is forced to ruff with a winning heart.

Playing the hand safely! I cashed one round of hearts and then ruffed a club and returned to hand with the K♦ to ruff another club. I cashed the A♦  discarding a spade and now had to make a decision. Do I play for the A♠  in the South hand or cash the Q♦  and ditch another spade? Probably cashing the Q♦ has the marginally better odds, but alas I played the spade and drifted one off. But could I have done better? Did I need to choose between the two options? Good declarer play is about finding a line to sensibly combine options.A better line was not to cash the A♥ at trick 2. Instead I should ruff a club and now lead a spade towards my K♠ . This fails but I still have the alternative option to ditch a losing spade available. Best play is probably for North to win A♠ and exit with Q♥ .Now declarer wins, plays the K♦, ruffs the final club and runs the top diamonds discarding two spades. North is forced to ruff the third diamond with a trump winner and the contract will be made as North has 3 spades and cannot obtain a spade ruff before declarer regains the lead and draws the remaining trumps. 

Michael Whittaker

11 July 2017