Saturday, March 14th 2015
Schedule, Results, ACBL Live and Bulletins
Using the bidding as a guide to play and defense – part 2
Opening lead: 
K
Bidding commentary: The questionable bid is South’s pass to 2
, holding three hearts and two spades. Give South a spade honor and it would be somewhat better to play a 5-2 rather than a 4-3 fit. It is also possible that North has six spades and four hearts, maybe 5-5? You can go crazy. 2
gives partner another chance to bid, something you don’t relish. One way to shut partner up is to pass.
Defensive commentary: As South, play the 9 at trick one, the higher or highest equal when signaling encouragement. If you play the 8, you deny the 9. After partner cashes the queen and leads a diamond to your ace, switch to the 7. As North, when a heart is led, rise with the ace as the bidding tells you that West has a singleton. How? Well, West must have at least six clubs to bid the way he did. He has followed to three diamonds and is known to have at least three spades (South would have bid 2 instead of 1NT if he had three spades). Furthermore, South’s pass of 2 shows at least three in the suit. With doubletons in both majors, South would prefer spades).
Play commentary: Once North shows up with three diamonds along with five spades and four hearts, he is marked with at most a singleton club. So lead low to the queen and then low to the 10. Before squandering dummy’s lone club entry, lead a heart to the king in order to set up the king for a spade discard. You wind up losing three diamonds and a heart.