This wild deal was submitted by Christine Elliott. 

Vul:None Dlr: South	QJ765  63  Q84  AJ10
109  4  J962  Q98762		A8432  J1098752  3  --
	K  AKQ  AK1075  K543

West	North	East	South
			2
Pass	2	3	3NT
Pass	6NT	Pass

It is giving me headaches. Let me try to explain.

South has 22 HCP, but is it worth 22? The pros: Nice 5-card diamond suit, lots of aces and kings. The cons: singleton king (hard to know its worth). Is South “balanced”? Is it a “notrump hand?” Technically not, but should South bid diamonds and clubs?  Should South open 2 or 1?  So many decisions.

There is no right or wrong (often the case in bridge). I think I’d treat South’s hand as 22-24 “balanced.” If partner complains, I’ll just tell him that I had a club in with my spades (more believable than having a diamond in with my spades). Or, if playing online, I could just say I didn’t have my reading glasses on. To show 22-24 balanced, we open 2, planning to rebid 2NT.

Over South’s 2, West passes (double would shows clubs, but a much better suit) and North has enough to respond 2. This shows 8 or more HCP and a “decent” five-card suit. Is QJ765 “decent?” Another close decision. Certainly, North could have chosen 2, waiting, but we’ll go with 2 as shown.

Meanwhile, East is sitting there with 7-5 distribution. The fact that East’s RHO has 5 spades, makes his hand much worse (picture instead that East’s partner might have had something like Kxxxx in spades, no longer possible). Still, East should come into the auction, especially not vulnerable. Any interference will take away bidding space from North-South. Given that there are so many spade losers, I’d be afraid to preempt all the way to 4. But I would stick in a 3 bid as shown, to be a bit of a nuisance.

South always planned on showing a notrump hand and now he is no longer worried about spades. He could double for penalty, but I like a descriptive 3NT here. North expects partner to have 22-24. Adding that to his 10 gives 32-34, so North bids the notrump slam.

The Play

West dutifully leads his partner’s suit and South counts his tricks (the first order of business when declaring a notrump contract). There are 8 for sure (3 hearts, 3 diamonds and 2 clubs). If diamonds run, that will provide 2 more to get to 10. Knocking out the spade ace would then get declarer to 12 and his contract. There are lots of stoppers, so this looks easy (if diamonds behave). They don’t.

Upon winning the first trick, declarer should play the K at trick 2. Generally, in notrump, we want to develop, not grab. There is no hurry to play the diamonds. West plays the 10 (hi-lo with a doubleton). Should East win the ace? Maybe yes, maybe no. Likely it won’t matter (from East’s point of view), so let’s say he takes the A and plays a second round of hearts. West throws a club and declarer notes the 7-1 heart break. Declarer now has 10 tricks set up and if diamonds come in, there are 12.

Proper technique in diamonds is to play the ace (or king) and then low to dummy’s queen. If the suit is 3-2 (or the J is singleton), the deal is over (claim 12 tricks). If RHO (unlikely since he is known to have started with 7 hearts) has Jxxx, there is a marked finesse and again 12 easy tricks. Not surprisingly, East throws a heart on the second diamond. Darn!

A long shot still exists in spades. West followed to the first spade with the 10 or 9. If he started with exactly 1098 tripleton, the spades will run! Declarer hopefully tries the Q and West plays another highish spade (he has now played the 10 and 9). Excited that he is carefully watching the spot cards, declarer now tries another high spade, but West shows out. East’s 8 is still lurking. What did declarer throw on the spades?

Truth be told, it doesn’t matter. If by some miracle you are still following my analysis, I’ll give you some good news and bad news for declarer. He now has a complete count on the hand! West has shown out in both majors and East has shown out in diamonds. That means West started with 2=1=4=6 shape and East with 5=7=1=0.  That also means West is marked with the CQ (and every missing club). But declarer still needs 4 club tricks and lacks the entries to take them.

Perhaps we misplayed and mistimed the diamonds. If we had started with a diamond to the queen and then tested spades, we would have learned of the distribution (and marked club finesse) while we still had entries back to our hand. Still, we’d have communication trouble and by now we all must have headaches trying to analyze this deal.

Lesson Points
1) Sometimes we treat a not-quite balanced hand as balanced, especially if there is sort of a stopper in the short suit.
2) On lead against notrump, leading a singleton is okay if it is partner’s suit.
3) In notrump, count sure tricks and then decide how to get more.
4) In notrump, remember to “develop and not grab.”
5) When the defenders show out in a suit, it helps declarer get a count on the hand.