The bidding: Direct cuebids should show five-five distribution in two playable suits. One loser suits are ideal when vulnerable but two loser suits with touching honours are okay when not vulnerable.
Touching honours make the suits playable opposite partner’s poor holdings. I have made the hands similar to last week’s column except that the long suits of North are not playable.
They both have multiple losers in what will likely be the trump suit.
North has two more high card points and South has the same three aces as last week. Even when not vulnerable, this hand is a disaster.
The contract: Two spades doubled
I. The opening lead: The king of clubs
The play: Declarer will ruff two clubs in his hand for down one.
The result: Two spades doubled, down one for -100.
II. The opening lead: The ace of spades and then a switch to the king of hearts which East will ruff to draw the last trump in declarer’s hand.
The play: The defense will get four spades and three clubs for down two.
The result: Two spades doubled, down two for -300.
These two results are not that terrible except that the opponents have nothing. At matchpoints, these will be low scores. Furthermore, partner will probably compete to a high level with proper support and then the result will be worse.
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