A Daring 3NT

[OliverC]

Paula stuck her neck out a bit on this hand, but played it well to bring it home. You are North, NS Game, Dealer East:

North
  J983
  A10
  Q62
  AJ95

Bidding
East     South     West     North
1       2         No          2NT⁽¹⁾
3       No⁽²⁾      3NT        All Pass

(1) Lebensohl
(2) Automatic over the 3 interference

Despite the vulnerability, I think I might have tried a penalty double over 3 rather than 3NT, but on this layout it would have been the wrong move.

East cashed 3 top Spades:

South (Dummy)
  7
  KQ972
  K3
  K7432

AKQ led

North
  J983
  A10
  Q62
  AJ95

On the 2nd and 3rd Spades Paula discarded Dummy's Diamonds. West followed twice and then discarded the 6. It might seem to some a little weird to discard the Diamonds including the King from Dummy, but it's the right play: Clearly you need to bring in one of Dummy's suits for 5 tricks. East can only attack Diamonds by leading them himself, so the Queen is safe enough with East on lead.

On trick 4 East duly led the 9. Paula discarded a Heart from Dummy. West won the Ace and returned the &, which Paula won.

Now what? Given the discard of the 6 by West on the 3rd Spade, Clubs is certainly the right suit to attack. Unless the 6 was a singleton and West has a big red 2-suited hand, Clubs should provide enough tricks for the contract. Since there are only 3 Clubs outstanding, it cannot possibly cost to unblock the Clubs by leading the 9 rather than the 5, and this Paula duly did. East showed out and the rest were Paula's. Well Done!


Nobody else found game on these NS cards, and most of the time the contract was played by EW in some number of Spades, usually going -1.