Page 17 - ABF Newsletter February 2026

a partscore when you should be in game with only three losers), is 4]. This should indicate five spades and, therefore, 6+ diamonds. Partner, North, will then choose between the two suits. On this occa- sion, North held ]Q-9-5-3 and }J-10, so you will rest in 4].
At our table, South sucked me in, rebidding 3}, and then 5} when partner rebid 3[ – perfectly reason- able with four-card support. I now doubled, not en- visaging a 5-7 hand shape, and bearing in mind that declarer had offered to play at the three-level. My double wasn’t a success!
You are playing in 3NT as West:
]A84 ]K7 [AK [98642 } A 10 8 6 } Q J 3 2 {K853 {A9
]7 ]103 [AQ96 [J104 }952 }AKQJ8 {A9643 {QJ5
WEST EAST 1}
1[1 1NT 2}2 pass
WEST 1} 2NT 1
EAST 1[ 3NT 2
2} was a clearly superior contract to 1NT, but the play is the most interesting thing. South found a trump lead...
There are several play options, none of which involve removing trumps. If you draw trumps, you will lose two spades. This means that you need to work on your outside suit(s) before drawing trumps. Option 1 is to lead a spade, allowing you to ruff a spade loser. Option 2 is to take the heart finesse. This line is very tempting, given the solidity of the heart pips. However, the heart suit provides only one discard, so you will still need the club finesse. Option 3 involves clubs. You could take the club finesse, and the five- card suit will provide you with two discards.
The best line is to play on clubs at trick two. Lead the {Q and try the finesse. North wins the {K. Di- amonds happen to be 4-1 (South has the length) so there is no diamond return. You are now able to work on the spade ruff, with the clubs taking care of the heart losers, thus making eleven tricks!
On my final offering, it is only the club suit that is relevant:
WNE You
S { K 10 7 6 4
Dummy {A5
Declarer (North) leads the {Q and it’s your turn to play. Should you cover the honour with your honour? The answer is ‘no’. The rationale behind covering honours is that you are trying to promote a trick for your side.
Despite being unable to see declarer’s Q-J, you should duck because dummy only has two clubs. The next club will remove the ace and now you will still hold the K-10 over declarer’s jack. If you have covered the queen, declarer’s Q-J-9-8 will become three tricks rather than two tricks!
Keep thinking, slow down, and don’t make reflex plays.
1. 18-19 HCP.
2. Those hearts only look like a four-card suit!
North leads the {6.
You simply have to work out how you plan to dev- elop your extra tricks. They can come from hearts or diamonds.
You have two entries to dummy, so if hearts break 3-3, you can cash the ace and king, cross to dummy and lose your heart, then return to dummy to cash your two heart winners. This line relies on hearts breaking 3-3 (or a doubleton with two honours), with 3-3 breaks being about 35.5%. The alternative line is to take the diamond finesse, creating two (or three) extra diamond winners. This is clearly superior.
Choosing to work on diamonds means that you should win the opening lead in dummy, preparatory to starting work on diamonds. You lead the }Q, fi- nessing, and North discards! Look at your diamond spot cards; you now have four diamond tricks, as long as you keep finessing. Now you lead the }J and South covers, so you win the ace. You still have the }10-8 over South’s }9-7-5, so you can return to dummy’s ]K to finesse diamonds again.
Not only that, but North had to find a lot of discards and, being 6-5 in the blacks, ends up being squeezed, giving you an extra black trick (in our case, she dis- carded two clubs, leading to our side scoring three club tricks). Just ensuring ten tricks would have been an equal top, but eleven tricks was an outright top.
This was probably our most interesting hand:
1. Not strong enough to bid 2{ then reverse into 2[.
2. Not happy with 1NT with a singleton spade opposite three spades at most (no 1] rebid). Therefore, I chose to rebid
2}, even though it may have been a 4-3 fit.
Australian Bridge Federation Ltd. Newsletter: February 2026
Page: 17