The bidding:
Last week, a reverse was defined as bidding the longer lower ranking suit first. When the shorter higher ranking suit is bid at the two level, 17 points are shown.
What if the lower ranking suit is longer with 14 points? One cannot reverse.
With the hand above, South opens one diamond. North replies one spade and South happily bids one notrump.
What if North had replied one heart instead of one spade? South, with a wide open spade suit, must then bid clubs, giving partner a choice of either minor. Yes, partner can pick diamonds with only three of them. That is good practice in a 4-3 fit.
South could have opened one club and rebid two clubs had partner responded one heart, completely ignoring diamonds.
Furthermore, North could have rebid his spadesuit. Since he was at nine points not six, he let partner play one notrump.
The contract: One notrump by South
The opening lead: The five of hearts
The play:
Declarer wins the ace of hearts and runs clubs. This is a simple example of a squeeze play. As he is running clubs, declarer watches the discards. He then attacks the suit with the greatest number of discards.
Declarer notices that diamonds have not been discarded, only several hearts and spades. He plays to the king of spades and gets one spade, two hearts, one diamond and five clubs. There is possibility for more depending on the discards.
The result: One notrump making plus two for +150
Note:
- With only one heart stopper, declarer will likely only make one notrump, taking away the king of spades and one heart.
-Declarer will not see many diamond discards since he bid one diamond. Minor suits are always four or longer when both minors have been bid by one player. Otherwise the diamond length could be three.