Bridge - The Scotsman 20/09/12

Misfits with plenty of points are generally best played in 3NT.

You will have communication problems, but so may the defenders, as on this deal from the Transnational Mixed Teams in Lille.

South led the ten of hearts. With so few entries to dummy there seemed no point trying to establish diamonds, so declarer chose to play on spades. He won the jack of hearts and crossed to the king to play ace, then jack of spades. South won the queen and played a third heart, on which North discarded the two of clubs, an encouraging signal. Declarer won and played the ten of spades. Disappointingly, North showed out again. South won the king of spades, cashed the queen of hearts, and led a diamond in this position, where declarer needed four more tricks:

Why had South not switched to a club? He had five spades and four hearts; perhaps he had four diamonds also. In any case, if North won the king of diamonds he had no good return, so declarer took the diamond finesse. When it scored he crossed to the ace of clubs. If South threw a spade there were three spade tricks, so he threw a diamond. Declarer cashed nine of spades and put South on lead with the eight. He had to lead another diamond, allowing declarer to finesse again for his contract.