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After two passes Santa opened a weak 2H. Many would not open this hand with only 5 hearts and 5 high card points but opening a hand like this is a common ploy in third seat because fourth seat is almost certain to have at least an opening hand. It pays to get in the way especially being non-vulnerable.
Well, west does have a big hand and Elvira doubled planning to bid clubs next or possibly support a spade bid by the Grinch.
Harry, well aware that Santa might be light, even for a weak 2 bid, raised hearts anyway. He felt protected by the vulnerability and furthering the preempt would make it tougher on the opponents.
The Grinch had an easy 3NT call that ended the auction.
To view the play of the hand click here.
Santa led the 10 of hearts, top of an interior sequence, normal for this holding. But was it the right suit? The Grinch bid no trump in front of him and therefore should have at least one and a half heart stoppers. Something like AJxx or AQx. Keeping the king behind such a holding might be advantageous.
Even if the hearts set up, with no side entry north should try something else. My personal experience is that blindly leading from Jxx or Qxx rarely works, so spades are out. If you try to find partner’s suit with a club, partner will think you have the 10 and if you do gain the lead again you can’t continue them anyway, so try a diamond. I like the 10 here as it may finesse an honor in the east hand if partner has something.
The Grinch won the first trick, a little gift from Santa. He won with the J but should have used the Q, keeping the whereabouts of the J unknown to Santa.
He counted his sure tricks which came to twelve (3 spades, 2 hearts, 1 diamond and 6 clubs) and looked over the hand to see if there was a chance for a thirteenth somewhere.
There were 2 possibilities, spades breaking 3-3 or the king of hearts falling under the ace. The only way the king would fall is if south started with Kx in which case he probably would have played it at trick one, so the Grinch would have to focus on the spades.
If they are 3-3 he’d have all the tricks. He ran his winners, saving the spades for last. If they are 4-2 the defender with 4 might pitch one on the run of the clubs since there’s only 3 in the dummy and no one knows you have 4.
As you can see, the spades are friendly and 13 tricks are available after the opening lead. The Grinch though, inexplicably threw a spade away at trick 10 hoping for a miracle in hearts(?), but instead he completed the gift exchange.
The line of play was fine until the mis-guided discard but there is one improvement that can be made. Cash the ace of hearts before running the clubs. Maybe the king will fall or something else good will happen. There’s no risk on your part as you still have 12 running tricks and a possible 3-3 spade break.
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