Bookworm Bridge Conundrums #33
This conundrum about 2♣ and 2NT Openings was written by Barbara Seagram toget...
The Aces On Bridge by Bobby Wolff
South passed in second seat, believing his hand was wrong for a weak two but not strong enough for a one-opening.
Opening Lead: ♦5
Sjoert Brink, West, opened one heart now, and Bas Drijver responded two clubs, Drury, to show a good raise. South now came in with two spades, North raised, and South awarded himself a fourth, with a maximum in the context of his original pass.
Brink led his singleton diamond to the king, ace and 10 (South hiding the three-spot to keep open the possibility of West’s having led from five-three doubleton). Drijver knew well that a singleton diamond was likely, but West might have a natural trump trick anyway, and there was a more pressing matter to attend to. If West had the heart ace-jack, this might be the last chance to lead through declarer’s king. Drijver duly switched to a small heart to set the hand at once. Declarer read the hand well by playing the heart seven, necessary when trumps were 2-2, to prevent East from regaining the lead with the heart queen to give a diamond ruff, but his luck was not in.
In the other room, East gave his partner a diamond ruff at trick two, with West’s natural trump trick, and the defense could not recover. South’s second heart loser disappeared on dummy’s diamond queen.
Strangely, declarer might do better to reveal the diamond position from East, by dropping the diamond three at trick one, to encourage a diamond return? East might smell a rat against a good declarer, though.
Bid with the Aces
Answer: Pass
Partner could have as many as 18 points, but he may have 11. You cannot stomach two spades, so either overbid with two no-trump or underbid with pass. In my view, with no source of tricks in the minors, passing is just fine. You may miss a game but unless vulnerable at teams the odds favor going low. Possession of the diamond 10 might tempt me to go high.
I have a question: why 3d is not correct? Maybe also 3C because North can have 5-4-4-0 so you can get the fit in clubs and if hasn't he can bid diamond to answer to 3c as a fourth coulour. However I disagree with pass because North can have 11-15pp so it's mandatory to understand if it is possible to play the manche or not