Here's your hand, sitting
south in third seat:
♠ K4
♥ 5
♦ 987642
♣ AT93
Partner opens 1H in first
seat. Regardless of what system you play, Standard American or 2/1, you can
only respond 1N here, even though you have a six card suit and a
singleton. You have 7 HCP, so you must
bid. You're too weak to bid your deplorably bad diamond suit.
Partner reverses with 2S
(which promises at least 17 HCP and 5-4 distribution, or 6-5 with opening hand
values). You have to bid again. But the value of a reverse is that it promises
at least 17 HCP, so some of the values you know for bids are now less. For
instance, normally a second bid by responder of 2N promises 11-12 HCP. But
since you know partner has at least 17 HCP instead of a maximum of 14 HCP with
a normal response, your bid of 2N will now only need 8-9 HCP. Even though you
only have 7 HCP, you do have a six card suit. And, anyway, you don't have any
other response. You can't raise spades since partner probably only has 4 and you
clearly can't raise hearts with a singleton. Really your only bid with this
hand is 2N. If your diamonds were better, like AQxxxx, then you could bid 3D,
which would generally be a drop dead bid that partner should pass.
But you do have clubs
stopped, and your diamond suit, weak as it is, is long enough that it is
stopped enough so that opponents shouldn't take more than three tricks in it,
if that. So your only bid is 2N, even though you only have seven HCP. Partner with
a huge hand containing 19 HCP bids 3N. Here's the four hand layout:
North
♠ AJT6
♥ KQT74
♦ A3
♣ KQ
West East
♠ 852 ♠ Q973
♥ AJ92 ♥ 863
♦ JT ♦ KQ5
♣ J862 ♣ 754
South
♠ K4
♥ 5
♦ 987642
♣ AT93
Auction:
West North East South
1H P 1N
P 2S P 2N
P 3N All Pass
Opening Lead 2C.
Before I comment on
declarer play, I want to say that even though it's standard to lead fourth from
your longest suit as an opening lead against no-trump, leading low from a jack
high four card suit is generally a destructive lead because the Jack will stop
a suit and if you lead from it declarer often wins the trick with the 10. If
the dummy in this hand had KQx instead of KQ tight, it's a perfect example of
how a lead from Jxxx gives declarer a trick she wouldn't get otherwise. Playing
low from dummy, she takes the trick with her Ten in her hand. She'd never get
that trick if the lead from Jxxx isn't made.
As to declarer play, you
count your tricks. You've got three club tricks (because the King Queen is
tight on the board, you can't take the opening lead with your 10, so West's
Jack will end up taking a trick if you try to take all three club tricks), one
diamond trick, three spade tricks, and one or two heart tricks. But as the
hearts actually lie, you're only going to take one heart trick because if you
lead your singleton and West plays low, you have to lead the hearts from the
board and you're doomed to lose to the ace and the Jack, at least.
So your only hope to make
three no-trump on this hand is to hope for a 3-2 split in diamonds. It doesn't
matter where the honors are. What is important, however, is that you keep two
entries to your hand, because you have to lead diamonds three times to set up
three diamond tricks, which means you have to get to your hand twice, and you
only have two entries.
So you take the opening
lead on the board with the Queen of clubs, lead the ace of diamonds and a low
diamond, ridding the board of diamonds, which is won by East's Queen. Now there
is only one diamond out. East returns a club to the singleton King on the
board. But you must take this in your hand with the ace, even though you have
to drop the singleton King on the board under it, because if you play low so
that the king wins on the board, you only have one entry to your hand, the king
of spades. Here's the layout at the point East leads his second club:
North
♠ AJT6
♥ KQT74
♦
♣ K
West East
♠ 852 ♠ Q973
♥ AJ92 ♥ 863
♦ ♦ K
♣ J86 ♣ 75
South
♠ K4
♥ 5
♦ 9876
♣ AT9
If you use the king of
spades to get to your hand to play another diamond to get the last diamond out,
you can't get back to your hand to play the three good diamonds that you set up
because you don't have another entry.
So you have to play the
ace and drop the king under it. You lead your third diamond. East takes it and
returns a club. West wins the jack and returns a spade, which you win in your
hand with the king over East's 9. You've made your contract; four diamonds,
three clubs (your 9 held up for the last club trick), and two spades without
ever touching dummy's beautiful hearts.
