The above hand occurred in the first online Woodberry Pairs event and was quite instructive. North, Ryan Stephenson, opened a strong NT and South, Andy Clery, transferred to clubs. North's 3C bid said that he liked clubs, and South gambled that the side suits would be stopped and bid 3NT.
NS50, the moniker of Nigel Stuttard, led the ace of hearts and West, John Bernard, a keen Arsenal fan, played the five, encouraging. Now East continued with two more high hearts and West played low on both. He feared that if he unblocked the jack, North might have Txxx. Now the hearts were blocked and the contract made.
The answer here was for East to lead the queen of hearts, and when West encourages with the five, then East can underlead the ace, on the THIRD round after West completes an echo. It would be wrong of East to underlead immediately as the five might be discouraging from T85 or T75.
We play weak NT. I opened 1S. After a competitive major suit auction, I played in 3S.
ReplyDeleteEast led AH, then switched to a diamond. I ducked a round of spades. Won the trump return, ruffed a heart. Returned to hand with a club, drew the last trumps and claimed 11 tricks.
Thanks for resurrecting the forum Paul
ReplyDeleteAnother way of looking at it (I probably wouldn't have thought of this at the table). Declarer must have A of spades, K of diamonds and A of clubs meaning they have a spade, two diamonds and seven club tricks anyway so you can afford to drop the jack of hearts on the third round as even if declarer has 10xxx of hearts you are not giving an extra trick away
Not a good hand for our methods - if you can bid shortages after the transfer then we get to the cold 5C. Even 6C is better than 3NT (assuming QJ of spades onside is more likely than a misdefense or a non heart lead)!