Problem

The Auction:

This week you are invited to take the North seat. South has passed and West just bid 1♥. What are you going to bid?

Solution

You have an eight-card suit of clubs, which fully justifies the (the weak) jump overcall bid of 4♣. But East could easily overcall 4♥ if the opponents have found a suit fit. If you bid 5♣, it is less likely that the opponents will keep on bidding, continuing on five level, especially if East has no support in hearts.

If you overcalled, East would probably lead hearts, as you have a void in hearts you could ruff and regain the lead immediately. If you bid 5 ♣, the opponents could still go on and declare 5♥, after finding a major suit fit.

You declare 5♣. East doubles and leads the ♥3, you play a small heart from dummy and ruff West`s queen (trick 1). The best side suit is diamonds, if you could set up the diamond suit for a pitch, this could take care of a spade loser.

You lead the ♣A (trick 2) and then the ♦Q. East covers with the ♦K, dummy`s ♦A wins the trick (trick 3). To be on the safe side you pull the last trump, leading the ♣J from dummy and take West’s queen with the king (trick 4). As East ditched a small diamond, you lead the ♦9, which wins the trick (trick 5). Knowing East has only one diamond left, you lead diamonds again, dummy`s ♦J wins this trick and the ♦8 the next one (tricks 6, 7).

As you still have five clubs left (tricks 8, 9, 10, 11, 12), the opponents could win only one more trick. The choice is whether to lead spades and let them have it, lead hearts and hope that by some miracle your king wins the trick or lead club after club hoping that the opponents will ditch all the spades (unlikely).

The probability of the hand pattern of 8-3-2-0 is about 1 %. Your interference bid disturbed the auction, so the opponents could not reach correct contract.

By going straight to 5♣ you secured the declaration and lots of IMPs as the opponents could have made 4♥. Although South might have had opened the auction with 11HCp with 1♦ – if feeling frisky – it turned out even better now as you jumped straight to five level. Otherwise the opponents might have had more bidding space for successful negotiations.

5♥ by West could have been taken down. So the next best option if the opponents overcalled 5♥, would have been to double.

West would have become the declarer in case of 5♥. North could have led the ♣A (trick 1), then the ♦Q, catching East`s ♦K so South could have taken the second trick with the ♦A (trick2). If South led the ♦J, winning the third trick, North-South could have taken the contract down.

Par Contract Analysis

The par contract on this deal is 5♥ X -1 by West.