Intermediate 24/9/2015 Hand 19

Board 19 South Deals E-W Vul	♠ K Q 5 2 ♥ Q J 3 ♦ 9 3 ♣ A 10 9 7
♠ 9 ♥ 10 7 4 ♦ A Q 7 6 4 ♣ Q J 8 4	N W E S	♠ 10 4 3 ♥ 8 6 ♦ K J 10 8 5 2 ♣ 6 2
	♠ A J 8 7 6 ♥ A K 9 5 2 ♦ — ♣ K 5 3

NS 7♠; NS 6♥; NS 5♣; NS 1N; EW 2♦; Par +1510

West	North	East	South
			1 ♠
Pass	4 ♠	All pass

Lead: ♣ Q

Most modern ACOL players play 4S as a pre-emptive raise, showing strong offensive values and little defence. A convention that a lot play here is Jacoby 2 NT - shows a GF hand, 4+ trump support, and (if playing splinters) no shortage. The key to this hand is no wastage in diamonds.

A possible sequence would be:
1S 2Nt
3D 4D
3D shows a shortage in diamonds. 4D shows no wastage (needs partnership agreement)
4 NT 5S
5S shows 2 key cards and SQ
6S
At this point, South knows North has SK, SQ, AC and some other values which are not wasted. The key is the HQ, but as said in an earlier hand, queens of off suits are very difficult to locate.

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