City and Canada Bay – Thursday Morning 5th December 2024.
Board 3 last week saw many East West pairs going off in 1NT but they had a much better spot available in diamonds. Let’s see why, and how they might reach it.
Most Souths these days will open 1♠. Yes it’s only 11 points and the suit is bad but against that it gets your side into the auction first (a big advantage), it takes almost the whole 1 level away from East West, and you are at favourable vulnerability.
West will surely then overcall 1NT (15-18 or thereabouts). If South does choose to pass initially then West would open 1NT anyway. North doesn’t have quite enough to act after 1♠ 1NT. It’s important to understand that suit bids by North in that auction are weak (with 9/10+ points he can start with a penalty double of 1NT). Suit bids tend to show at least a 6 card suit so, while North might choose to bid on this hand, it’s not appealing after partner has opened his singleton – he’d just be guessing which of his suits will be better. So if North passes it’s over to East. Given the final contract was 1NT at quite a number of tables these Easts must have passed.
Although 1NT can be made (see advanced section for how), many East West pairs went off after a club lead. I suspect that’s because they tried to set up the long diamonds in the East hand. That’s an important thing to appreciate – it’s not right for declarer to play on diamonds after a club lead. Why not? Because declarer is going to have to lose 2 tricks in diamonds to get the suit going. No-trumps is basically a race to set up tricks in your long suit(s). Once the defence have started with clubs they are ahead in that race and will get their club suit set up before declarer can get his diamonds going. Besides, even if you do get the diamonds going, how are you going to reach the East hand to cash them?
This points to the problem. East should not pass 1NT. Yes it’s matchpoint pairs where you want to play NT in preference to minors wherever possible. But there are limits. His hand is so weak that it’s worth far more when played in diamonds. That’s because the little diamonds will not only be tricks when that suit is trumps but also potentially vital entries needed in order to lead up to honours in partner’s stronger hand through South’s opening hand. He also knows there is at least an 8 card fit (partner will have at least 2 for a balanced 1NT bid).
So East should attempt to get out of 1NT into diamonds. There are various bidding methods available to do that (see advanced section for a discussion of some). But a good one is a transfer so the stronger 1NT hand is declarer.
How might the play go in 3♦? If East is declarer the lead is likely to be ♥K followed by ♥Q. The play should be quite easy now. Declarer ruffs and leads a trump. South can’t afford to put the ♦A up into thin air so he will duck and West’s ♦K scores. Now a 2nd round of trumps goes ♦10 Q A. That leaves South with the winning ♦J but it doesn’t matter what he does now. Declarer can win whatever he plays, cash one top spade, ruff a heart to East and lead a spade to the 9. West’s 4th spade then provides a discard for East’s 3rd club. So the only losers are 1 heart and 2 trumps. Why a spade to the 9? Remember South opened 1♠ so showed at least 5 – hence after North has followed to one round, he can’t have any more (cashing the ♠A is just a precaution in case South opened with 5 small and North happens to have singleton ♠J)!
If West is declarer, it’s potentially not quite as easy. This time North will probably lead ♣Q. Now South can play a 2nd club when in with a trump. That sets up a club trick for the defenders so declarer is now at risk of only making 9 tricks instead of 10. Can you see the problem declarer might run into if he isn’t careful? 10 tricks can in fact always be made – see advanced section for the problem declarer might run into and what he needs to do to overcome it.
Key points to note
Opening the bidding tends to give your side an advantage so these days opening 11 point hands is getting more common – especially when not vulnerable.
After 1X and a 1NT overcall start with a penalty double with any good 9+ point hand. That means suit bids are WEAK saying you don’t want to defend 1NT x.
With a weak hand and a long suit, get out of 1NT (preferably with a transfer). Your hand is worth far more with your long suit as trumps. That principle is valid on many hands in fact – prefer to play in the weak hand’s long suit (high cards in the other hand will still score tricks).
Over 1NT you want a way of transferring to minors as well as the more common major suit transfers.
Try to practice projecting the play ahead to visualise what problems you might have in a few tricks’ time. That can point to a play you need to make early on.
More advanced
East West can make 1NT via 4 spades, 1 diamond and 2 clubs. Win ♣A (preserving ♣K for later), cash one top spade (in case North has singleton ♠J), then set up your diamond trick. Now you have ♣K entry to take a marked spade finesse. Declarers who tried playing on diamonds went off – probably because they didn’t take a 1st round spade finesse and couldn’t then score their 4th spade. Once the defence lead clubs, declarer needs to recognise that his long diamonds are dead because the vital ♣K in East is going to get knocked out before the diamonds are set up. Hence playing on diamonds is wrong and he needs to look elsewhere for his tricks (to spades in this case).
Some in fact went several off in 1NT – perhaps by losing lots of hearts? If the defence do play ♥KQ10 then declarer should definitely NOT cover with ♥J. It can’t gain and, on this layout, ducking means the defence’s suit is blocked so North cannot score his long hearts. Of course had declarer held ♥9, or one of the defenders had already played that card, then now you do cover to establish your ♥8 as a trick.
There are a few methods to get out over 1NT (and it’s sensible to play the same methods over a 1NT opening and a 1NT overcall). Before transfers became standard, stayman was the only artificial bid and a simple suit bid of 2♦, 2♥ or 2♠ was weak. These days of course almost everyone plays 2♦ as a transfer to hearts. But you can still transfer to a minor. One option is to play 2♠ or 2NT as a transfer to either minor (partner must bid 3♣ and you pass or correct to 3♦). Another is “four suit transfers” where 2♠ is a transfer to clubs and 2NT is a transfer to diamonds. Remember you don’t need 2NT as an invitational hand over 1NT – those hands can all start with simple stayman (not guaranteeing a major) and then bid 2NT.
Over these minor suit transfers it’s also useful to agree what the middle step means (i.e. bidding 1NT-2♠-2NT instead of 1NT-2♠-3♣). A good method is for one sequence to show a “super-accept” – i.e. it likes the suit transferred to (usually showing a top honour in the suit). That might enable the pair to bid a light 3NT. Imagine you hold AQxxxx in a minor and not much else when partner opens or overcalls 1NT. If you transfer to the suit and partner shows you the K then you now have a good chance to run 6 tricks in the suit so 3NT may become a very reasonable shot.
What about if West plays 3♦ on the ♣Q lead? It’s a hand where you need to think ahead and project how the play will go. Clearly you need to draw trumps but the defence will play a 2nd club when they get in. Imagine you win ♣K because you want to lead towards ♦Kx (the right play in trumps because South could easily have started with ♦Ax which would let you play low to the ♦K and duck the 2nd round to his now bare ace). Now after the 2nd trump South wins and plays a club which you win with ♣A in West. But now you can’t reach the East hand quickly to take the spade finesse. If you try a heart North can jump in with ♥A to cash ♣10. So instead you might choose to win ♣A initially. But now you are in the wrong hand to start on trumps. Today playing ♦K is OK but it might not have been.
There’s a better line. Win ♣A and immediately play a heart yourself! This is a far sighted play setting up a later entry back to East. The defence win and play a 2nd club which you win in East. Now lead a trump as before. Once again South has to duck (otherwise the defence lose their 2nd trump trick) so you can play a 2nd round. When South wins, the key point is he can’t now reach his partner’s hand containing their winning club (he doesn’t have any more clubs and you are trumping hearts). This means declarer can now cash a top spade, cross to hand with a heart ruff (the entry he carefully set up earlier!), and take the marked spade finesse. South has the last trump but is stuck following to all the spades so the club loser gets discarded. The key play was the heart to cut the defence’s communication with each other and enable declarer to quickly reach the East hand later. This sort of play requires some thinking ahead. It only comes with experience of being able to visualise how the play is likely to go, what the hands will look like in a few tricks’ time, and what problems you might then have. It’s the ability to do that which is one thing that separates the strong player from the average player. That’s why after the opening lead is the right time to think – it might already be too late if you just quickly win in one hand and THEN start thinking!
Julian Foster (many times NSW representative) ♣♦♥♠
