Bridge: Opportunities to convey information cheaply and safely should not be squandered

Overcalling at the 1-level would have provided a key newsflash for partner, but a second — and arguably even more important — opportunity came and went . . .

Bidding
Dealer: South
E/W Game

Some pairs stayed out of 3NT; others reached it quickly. It mainly failed.

At this table East had two opportunities to ask for a spade lead, that would scupper the contract. East felt that his suit was too poor for an overcall, but bidding 1S shouldn’t promise great riches, nor should it be a guaranteed lead-director but, here, it would have done the trick. Later on, he had the chance to double North’s Fourth Suit Forcing bid of 2S. This is a great time to indicate that you like the idea of partner leading a suit; failure to do so usually indicates that partner should not lead that suit. The better you become at bridge, the more these negative inferences begin to take on greater significance. 

Here, West opted for what he felt was a safe lead: Q♥, but it proved very costly. Declarer won in hand with K♥, and led a low diamond. East beats dummy’s Q♦ with his A♦, and followed now with a 10♠, to J♠, Q♠ and dummy’s K♠. When declarer cashed K♦ and revealed the West started with ♦J10 doubleton, these four tricks, together with four clubs, allowed declarer to finesse West for J♥ too, making eleven tricks which was, unsurprisingly, a rather good score.