Partner opens 1D you respond 1H and the opposition overcall spades. Now you have to decide will you show your partner your 5 card club suit (and then they will surely then bid No Trumps? a dangerous contract with your hand, but the problem with bidding 3C indicates you have a stronger hand and more points than you actually do have. The lesser of 2 evils in this situation is to bid partner back into the diamond suit 3D showing 10-12 points (even though you only have 2 diamond suit cards) for their minimum hand and good diamond suit. Partner bids 3NT anyway. All Pass
Acol Bidding
Partner opens 1D you respond 1H and the opposition overcall spades. Now you have to decide will you show your partner your 5 card club suit (and then they will surely then bid No Trumps? a dangerous contract with your hand, but the problem with bidding 3C indicates you have a stronger hand and more points than you actually do have. The lesser of 2 evils in this situation is to bid partner back into the diamond suit 3D showing 10-12 points (even though you only have 2 diamond suit cards) for their minimum hand and good diamond suit. Partner bids 3NT anyway. All Pass
Plan Before You Play
A spade lead Exactly what you didn't want- dummy goes down in 3NT count your winners. 1 in spades, 2 in hearts, 2 in diamonds and 1 in clubs. Whew a lot of work to do. Plan to run diamonds and hearts, finesse the JC after taking your spade winner. Playing the heart suit (where you certainly have to lose a trick) is the least favorable option. Try everything else first
The Play
Win the spade lead, play a low diamond to the KD (playing the honours in the short suit first) followed by the 10D, realise diamonds are split 5-0, you need now to make the club finesse and run your hearts in order to make it. Lead out a low heart and lose, play 9S on the spade return win the spade return with JS and now play KH and lead a small club to finesse the JC, lead your QH, JH,10H and 8H play the AD and lead a club towards the AC. Run the remaining winning heart tricks and lose the last club trick.
Comment
Partner overbids their hand and it's up to you to play your partnership out of trouble. Entries to declarer's hand are the key to making this contract.
A 5D contract goes light.You need to develop the JC and KH as entries to each respective hand.
The above commentary is intended as a guideline only. As with any Bridge hand there are many ways to bid and play any hand.
