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One no trump opener

Warren Watson leads readers in an ongoing game of bridge.
57990traildailytimesSept11Deal155-OneNotrumpOpener9-11-13
North South Vulnerable

The bidding: South has 15 high card points and a hand with a difficult rebidding problem. A hand with four spades or a second lower ranking suit does not have a rebid problem. If South opened one club, his longest suit, he cannot rebid two diamonds because that would show a reverse of 17 points or better. He also cannot rebid one notrump because that would show 12 to 14 points.

With five clubs and four diamonds, some will open one diamond and rebid two clubs. It is better to lie about length not points. Lying about the length of a minor is not so bad because one often wants to play in notrump when one has the minors.

If South opens one notrump, the rebid problem is overcome.

West has 15 or more high card points and doubles to show an equivalent one notrump overcall of 15 plus points. If West had not doubled, North would have invited with his eight to nine points. He now can redouble because he knows one notrump redoubled will be better than two or three notrump making.

The Lead: West knows his partner has no points and the rest of the points are in North and South hands. The safest lead is probably the king of spades. All other leads will likely lose a trick.

The play: Declarer wins the ace and plays on clubs.

Interior Finesse: Play a small diamond to the nine, then run the queen through after the 9 loses to the jack. There is an interior finesse available but there is not enough communication (entries) between South and North to carry it out.

End Plays: Declarer plays the king of clubs and West ducks. West has a problem of being end played every time he gets in. Declarer continues and West cashes two clubs and two spades and exits the Jack of hearts. He hopes this fools declarer into thinking East has the queen, but it does not.

South wins the King of hearts, cashes two clubs and plays a small heart to the ten. He could end play West for the third time (including the opening lead) by exiting a heart and having West play away from the king of diamonds, but that would be the fifth trick he loses. Declarer loses a diamond on the last trick.

The Result: South wins one spade, three hearts, one diamond and three clubs making two notrump. West gets two spades, no hearts, one diamonds and two clubs.

West gets 40 x 4 + 100 (for insult) + 400 x 1 (vulnerable overtrick) + 500 (vulnerable game) for +1160.

Notes:

-North will always redouble instead of inviting with 2NT because one notrump redoubled will always score more than they can get undoubled.