This week's hand illustrates an advantage of the so-called "weak notrump" and at the same time presents interesting defensive and play situations.
This hand arose in a knockout match, so the scoring is IMPS. South is the dealer, and East-West are vulnerable. The hands:
North S: T4 H: KJ94 D: KJ87 C: T72 West East S: 95 S: AKQJ7 H: Q8 H: 6532 D: Q642 D: 53 C: KJ953 C: 86 South S: 8632 H: AT7 D: AT9 C: AQ4In the "open room", North-South were playing that a 1NT opening shows a balanced hand with 12 to 15 high-card points -- the so-called "weak notrump". Advocates of the weak notrump don't insist that the bid promise a stopper in every suit, as hands in that range with stoppers in all four suits are comparatively rare. Consequently, South had no qualms about opening the bidding with 1NT despite the spade weakness.
West passed. Opposite a strong notrump, North would certainly bid 2C (Stayman) with his 8 high-card points, searching for a game in hearts or notrump. However, opposite a weak notrump North knows that game should be out of reach, as the partnership has at most 23 HCP between the two hands. Even though hearts might be superior, North should pass 1NT; the contract should be playable, and any action on North's part might push North-South too high if South has minimum values.
East could have bid 2S at this point, but he instead chose to pass and defend 1NT. If West ever leads spades, East will have 5 tricks in that suit; and on this auction, West has some values which could contribute to the defense, leading East to believe that 1NT is beatable.
So, South's 1NT opening ended the auction. With no clues from the bidding to guide his lead, West chose to lead fourth-best from his longest and strongest suit, and hence tabled the five of clubs. South played low from dummy and won the trick in hand with the queen.
After the club lead, South has six top tricks, and additional tricks are easily establishable in the red suits. Even if he misguesses whichever red suit he first attacks, the defense can only take one red trick and five spades before conceding the remaining tricks to declarer. 1NT is unbeatable on a club lead, and the lead offers excellent chances for overtricks (which aren't terribly important at IMP scoring, but are dreadfully important at matchpoints).
South can make as many as ten tricks; at the table, South managed to take nine tricks despite a misguess. He started by guessing the hearts correctly, picking up four tricks in the suit. He then led the king of diamonds followed by the jack, which West captured with the queen. West returned a club to South's ace, and now South cashed the ace of diamonds for his 8th trick, on which East discarded the ace of spades (!) as a violent suit-preference signal. Down to nothing but four small spades, South exited with a spade to dummy's ten. East won with the jack and cashed two top spades, but on the last trick his seven of spades lost to declarer's eight! +150 for North-South.
In the "closed room", the auction started along standard lines: South opened 1C (with 3 cards in each minor, one generally bids 1C), West passed, North bid 1H, and now East overcalled 1S. South now made an unorthodox decision and bid 1NT despite not having a spade stop. (The 1NT bid accurately decribes South's shape and strength in this auction; his choices were 1NT and pass, and he chose to bid. Playing support doubles, South could avoid his dilemma by doubling to show 3-card heart support; but this would simply pass the problem to North on this layout.) This ended the auction.
East's overcall indicated to West that a spade lead might be profitable, and so he neglected a club lead in favor of the nine of spades. East won the trick with the queen and now faced a difficult decision. If he cashes his spade tricks now, his partner might be pressured into making discards which would allow the contract to succeed. (This situation is called a Cannibal Squeeze, as one defender is "eating" away at his partner's cards by cashing his own winners.) Indeed, if South runs his four remaining spade tricks at this point, South must discard two clubs and a diamond, and declarer is left with many chances of making.
East chose to retain communication between the two defensive hands by returning a low club, counting on West to return a spade later in the hand. With the spades wide open, South chose to win this trick with the ace instead of trying a finesse which was likely to lose. He would still have made the contract had he guessed the hearts correctly. However, since East had made an overcall, South quite naturally chose to play East for the queen of hearts. Consequently, South played low to the heart king followed by a low heart to the jack.
West won the queen of hearts and returned his second spade. East now ran his spades, with West pitching three diamonds. East then returned his second club. No matter what South does at this point, West must win four club tricks before conceding the last trick to South. Declarer took only three tricks! +200 for East-West, resulting in an 8-IMP pickup on the board.
As a final note, observe that South has better chances after the club shift if he makes a counter-intuitive play and ducks. If West continues clubs, then he has given South both a second trick in that suit and the tempo needed to establish a seventh trick in a red suit. If he leads spades, then East must now cash the spade tricks since he cannot count on West's having a third spade. When East exits for the second time with a club, South can win, and it is now natural to finesse West for the red queens in the hope that East started with just two clubs. (Yes, losing a finesse means that the contract is down; but down one is much better than down many at IMPS.)