Problem

The Auction:

South started the auction with 1NT. West overcalled 2♣ (Cappeletti, meaning a one-suited hand). North bid 2NT (Lebensohl puppet bid). East passed. North responded with 3♣. West went to 4♥. North doubled for penalty. South declared 5♣. West and North passed, East doubled.

How can South win 11 tricks? West leads the ♥Q.

* 2♣! Capelletti – Cappelletti is a bidding convention used to intervene over opponent's one notrump opening. After a 1 NT opening 2♣ shows a one-suited hand, usually 6 or more cards.

** 2NT! Lebensohl – Lebensohl is a bidding convention used by the responder after an opponent's overcall of a one notrump opening bid in order to compete further in the auction. After an overcall of a 1NT opening 2NT is a puppet bid, requiring the opener to bid 3♣.

Vulnerable: none

Contract: 5♣ S

Solution

South won the first trick with the ♥A (trick 1). The declarer has three losers – one in spades, hearts and diamonds. Double by East probably means East holds most of the missing clubs. South has to try a trump finesse and find a way how to discard one loser.

Spades offer a possibility for a discard, so South has to lead spades before the last guard – ♦A is down. Hearts are already without a stopper. The declarer led a low spade and West rose with the Ace (trick 2). West cashed in the ♥K next, East discarded a spade (trick 3) and West led back a spade. Dummy`s king won the trick (trick 4).

The declarer led a club from dummy and finessed the ♣10, which held (trick 5). As West played the ♣9, only three clubs remained and the declarer could now pull the trumps. South led the ♣A, K and Q as East held all the rest of three clubs (tricks 6, 7 and 8). Next the declarer led the ♠Q (trick 9) and crossed over to dummy by leading a small diamond to the ♦A (trick 10).

Now South led the ♠J, discarded the last diamond from hand (trick 11) and claimed the last two tricks with clubs (tricks 12, 13).

The outcome – which contract will be played – depends a lot on the choices made during the auction. If South had started with 1♣ or West overcalled 4♥ right away, East/West might have played 4♥. North, holding 8 HCP would have probably doubled, knowing South has an opening count.

The outcome of 4♥ doubled by West would have depended on defense. North would have probably led a club to South`s ace (trick 1). If South had switched to spades and West won the trick with the ♠A, then NS could have taken the contract down by one. South would have gained the lead with the ♥A (trick 2) and could have led spades again. North could have cashed in the ♠K and the ♦A (tricks 3, 4).

But if defense wouldn’t have found the switch to spades, West could have discarded a spade loser on a diamond after North`s ♦A was down.

Par Contract Analysis

The par contract on this deal is 5♥ Dbl by West -2.