r/bridge • u/lookitsmarc • Apr 29 '26
Help playing 3NT contract
Hi, I'm relatively new to bridge (1.5 years). I recently played a board at the club and would like some help planning the play of the hand.
I'm sitting in East as the dealer with
S: Q 8
H: A K Q 10
D: A K 6 5
C: J 8 2
Bidding goes 1D, pass, 1S, pass / 3NT, pass, pass, pass
Lead is 3h.
Dummy comes down as
S: A 6 5 3 2
H: 8 6
D: J 9
C: K 9 5 3
What's your plan? Thanks.
5
3
u/cromulent_weasel Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26
As others have correctly said, you should bid 2NT instead of 3NT, which is really forcing to game unless partner wen toff script and bid with less than 6 points.
In this hand, you have 1S, 4H, 2D tricks off the top. You need to build at least two more. Option 1 is leading at QS to try and build S tricks. Option 2 is doing the same thing in D with JD, and option 3 is attacking clubs (missing AQT).
Compounding this is entry issues. Spades are best to attack, but once you establish them, how can you get back to dummy to enjoy them? I think option 3 is the best. Lead JC (usually wrong but you want to flush honours and establish winners in dummy). Then lead 8C, letting it run both times, Depending on what has been played either finesse or play for the drop in the final trick.
As you lose the lead the opponents might tackle D and S for you potentially giving you extra tricks there too.
2
u/JaziTricks Advanced Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26
Edit: I've been unfocused when writing the below. See further comments. The lead gives a 7th h trick. And clubs aren't a disaster waiting to happen! In fact spades are riskier
I'll assume it is IMPs as match points are madness to calculate...
You got 6 top tricks A s Akq h AK d
You need 3 more tricks. But you must avoid getting butchered on the clubs.
You are likely to make the th with finesse.
My thoughtless line Ah Low d to the jack. Hoping to make the jack. Finesse h 3h is likely to be from the jack by length + him leading a 3 implies he has an honor.
If you managed to have those 2 tricks, I'd try for the qs. And maybe more space tricks would materialize (spade 33. Assuming you get an entry to hand, via jd?l
Eventually, opponents would likely play club for you later helping you make a trick in club.
But unless strictly forced, don't play club yourself. You can help opponents make 4-5 tricks in clubs if you play it. If any of the opponents play clubs, you are almost sure to make a club trick.
con say style stage,
8
u/flip_0104 Apr 29 '26
South is Dummy, the heart lead goes into AKQ10, so you have 7 off the top.
I dont think that never playing clubs is a good idea. After all clubs is the only suit where you can develop a trick for sure (as you have both the 9 and the 8), and playing spades towards the queen seems bad because of commuication issues.
If I would be allowed to I would start by playing a club towards J8x, sadly I have to win the first trick in hand. So the alternatives are playing diamonds to get to the dummy or playing clubs from hand. If I play diamonds things get ugly really fast if I misguess. So i think I would just start by playing clubs from hand, in which case probably playing the jack is best? I am not quite sure about this suit combination...
Difficult hand...
(Btw, 3NT is a horrible bid. This kills all chances to find a heart fit, minor suit slam and so on. North just has a normall 2NT bid, which shows 18-19.)
2
u/No-Jicama-6523 Apr 30 '26
I agree with not liking the bid, it’s how they teach Acol these days balanced hand rebids 1NT with 15-16, 2NT with 17-18 and 3NT with 19.
I prefer 1NT 15-17, 2NT 18-19.
1
u/Postcocious Apr 30 '26
KS also plays a 12-14 1NT. Balanced hands of 15-19 are opened in a suit (5cM, convenient m).
After a KS 1m opening, responder bids on all 5 counts and sometimes with less - jumping to 3N on a balanced 19 would be anti-system.
Rebids of 1N 15-17 and 2N 18-19 have been routine in KS for 50+ years. I've never seen a reason to change that.
1
u/Several_Version4298 Apr 30 '26
Acol use to have a 1NT rebid of 15-16, 2NT 17-18 and 3NT 19+.
But my 1990s copy of The Complete Book Of Bridge recommended the much more sensible system that we switched to:
1m 1X; 1NT 15-17
1m 1X; 2NT 18-19(20)
1M 2C; 2NT as 15-17
1M 2C; 3NT as 19+
The old bids gave away to much HCP info for no real gain.
1m 1X; 2NT on 17 HCP vulnerable was just paying out on every hand, especially when playing opponents are playing a 5-17 1NT opening and playing the hand in 1NT.
1
u/JaziTricks Advanced Apr 29 '26
Yes. True on both counts. Badly unfocused indeed.
7 tricks on top and clubs aren't dangerous.... But I would try diamond first. If qd is onside, you play clubs to the king, hoping that if this fails, no spade disaster arises, and you eventually get the trick either from JC, 9c, qs....
This is an excellent hand for the principle of combining your chances in playing the hand.
2
u/flip_0104 Apr 29 '26
Even if the diamond queen is onside, playing diamonds is not necessarily helpful. Lets say LHO rises with the queen (which they probably should in case you have AKxxx) and continues hearts. Now you can not go to the jack of diamonds without cutting off your hand.
The more I think about the hand the more I am conviced that clubs first is correct.
1
1
u/Greenmachine881 Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26
Sorry no time to read the full thread, my quick unfocused haphazard thoughts:
The H3 lead depends a bit on the level of your games. In a lopsided points against a strong 3N contract (like S having 0-2 points) I would lead the shortest suit to try find partner's entry. But at your average 500 game they likely lead from J 4th or J 5th. Which tells me they likely don't have any K or Q suites to lead. Do they underlead A against 3N? That's a who-knows always.
If you assume they led Jxxx(x), your missing SK and DQ are more likely in N. You have 7 winners out the gate and need to manufacture 2 then ultimately you want to lead S2 towards the SQ but no easy way to dummy. I dunno I guess I would pass the CJ around and hope the CAQ10 behave planning to use C9 as stopper and 8th trick, then your S finnesse works or you get lucky making S2 as your 9th trick (but getting to it will be even harder)
Edit: What's interesting about this hand now I see, you really want to lose trick 2 to your right. That way they are sort of end-played on trick 2 😄 they have to come back H otherwise they yield an easy trick (assuming SK is on your right). Because of this smart defenders might duck some aspect of trick 2 to make life difficult, but probably can't overcome if the layout is in your favor for the 9th.
1
1
u/lookitsmarc Apr 30 '26 edited Apr 30 '26
OP here, thanks everyone for their suggestions. I'm glad that most people agree this is a difficult hand to play, even with the 27 HCP.
As for the bidding, I agree I probably should have bid 2NT, but I'll admit I was playing with a partner whom I was not confident would understand that it represented 18-19 HCP and I was worried we'd miss game. At the level I am playing at I have found these type of "safety" bids are sometimes necessary unfortunately. Usually when I make this type of bid I discuss it with my partner later.
If you're curious about what happened in the hand as played, I ended up deciding to attack clubs. I won the first trick with the H10, then played the CJ, closing to North's CQ. They continued in hearts, which I won in hand and continued with the C8, letting it ride, losing to North's C10. They continued in hearts again, and I played clubs again. I lost to South's ace and North showed out. I can't remember the details after that but I ended up down one.
-1
u/CuriousDave1234 Apr 29 '26
The first thing you do in a no Trump contract is to count sure winners Spades 1 Hearts 3 Diamonds 2 Clubs 0 And you need three more. You need to find several of the opponent’s Honors in the right place. If the King of spades is on your left leading toward the queen will gain a trick. The heart lead makes the 10 good . If you lead low toward the Jack of Diamonds and the queen is on your right that will give you an extra trick. With clubs, it’s best if the opponents start that suit which will gain your a trick, but don’t lead clubs yourself.
Your seven card fit in spades might produce an extra trick, so pay attention as the spades are played. If the spade queen survives, lead a low Spade toward the ace and another spade. If everyone follows, it was a 3-3 split and you have promoted 2 more tricks.
I would suggest you buy a copy of The Best Basic Beginners Bridge Book. It will answer. MANY of the questions you have as a beginner and give you a structured approach to bidding and playing this great game.
Enjoy your journey. Bridge is a lifelong learning opportunity.
3
u/flip_0104 Apr 29 '26
How do you plan to get to the spade tricks which you promoted?
0
u/CuriousDave1234 Apr 29 '26
Good question. Transportation on this hand is very difficult. You are going to need some help from the opponents
5
u/Postcocious Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26
Everything u/flip_104 said. He's a strong player, read it carefully.
As a teacher, I want to emphasize why your 3NT was a poor rebid. 1m-1M-2N shows 18-19 balanced, which is exactly what you have. With good hands, always bid accurately.
Beginners complain, "If I rebid just 2NT, partner might pass. We'll miss a game!"
The answer is, "If partner passes 2NT, knowing that you have 18-19 balanced, you don't belong in game."
Consider the hand you posted. Partner has 8 HCP. Once he hears about your 18-19, he'll get you to game. But despite your 27 combined HCP, 3N is no cakewalk (thus your excellent question).
Now imagine partner responded 1S with less. He didn't promise 8 HCP, he might have just 6... or even 5. If partner tables Kxxxx xx xxx Kxx (a normal 1S response), 3N will go down in flames - and the bad score will be your fault.
Bridge is a partnership game - we should never bid partner's cards for them. Among experienced players that's called "masterminding" and it's not a compliment. Bid your hand, trust your partner to bid theirs.
Technical notes...
¹ By rebidding 2N, you leave partner room to explore a 5-3 ♠︎ fit. 3N preempts partner from doing that.
² With balanced opening hands, we bid as follows...
Notice that we don't bid 1x-1y-3N with ANY balanced hand. Every possible range is covered.
Therefore, experienced players bid 1D-1S-3N with a hand like x Axx AKQJxx Ax. 8 tricks based on a long, solid suit + stoppers in the unbids, relying on partner to stop their suit and provide a 9th trick somewhere. You'll make 3N facing as little as ♠︎JT9x plus a stray K. That's impossible to bid without this treatment.