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While flat 4-3-3-3 shaped hands can often be a negative factor, this time South’s 20 HCP hand will pull its own weight.  The Diamond Ace-King-Queen-fourth is a great holding and the intermediate 10’s might prove beneficial as well.  After opening 2 Notrump, with 6 HCP North bids 3 Notrump.  Did you notice North also holds a 4-3-3-3 shape?  But again, North is proud of the intermediate values which could become a plus – notice the Diamond 10-9-x-x and the Club 10-9-8.  In time, perhaps these “spot cards” will be valuable to the opener. 

West makes a safe “top of broken sequence” lead – the Heart Queen.  Right away declarer South is aware that in the Heart suit, West holds the Q-J-9-x-[…] since South holds the A-10-8 and dummy holds the K-x-x.   Okay, it’s time to play your declarer play – certainly the opponents must be looking at the dummy as well and planning their defense.  In addition to voting and watching the video below, we invite you to login, read additional commentary and download a copy of our MS-Word, PDF, HTML, PBN and other formatted Bridge program files.

Looking for sure winners, declarer South counts 1 Spade, 2 Hearts, 3 Diamonds and 1 Club.  Assuming the Diamonds break normally, South has 8 tricks and needs to develop another winner somewhere.  So where do you think we should look? [Read more…]