Right-siding the Notrump

Good bridge players are ever mindful of "right-siding" the notrump. It is important to make sure that the proper hand plays the notrump contract.

Here is an example from a recent team game. I held this hand and heard my LHO open 1D, my partner overcall 2C and my RHO bid 2S:

xxx
KQJx
Kxx
Jxx

What do I bid? I could cue bid spades asking pard to bid notrump with a spade stopper. I could raise clubs, or I could bid 2 or 3 notrump.

The key is my diamond stopper (Kxx). I have to be the declarer so that my diamond king is protected. If I bid 3S and partner bids 3NT, my diamond king will probably be picked off on the opening lead with unfortunate consequences.

I like my help in clubs and partner's values all rate to be working as they are situated behind the opening bidder. I finally decided to go ahead and bid 3NT and hope that pard had a spade stopper.

A diamond was tabled and the dummy was satisfactory:

AKx
xx
xx
AQ10xxx

xxx
KQJx
Kxx
Jxx

With the club king onside I had an easy 9 tricks for a 10 imp pickup against 130. Had the contract been played from the other side it would no doubt have failed.

***********
I picked up this hand a few days ago in a team game:

AQxxx
Kx
Kx
AQxx

I opened 1S, intending to bid 2NT at my next opportunity. Instead partner responded 1NT. I was immediately disappointed because it was likely that the notrump was wrong-sided. All my honors were vulnerable to the opening lead. We ended in 3NT and pard was lucky to make it because the diamond ace was situated well. Our 2NT openers are 19-20 and we discussed the merits of opening this 18 count 2NT to protect the red kings. That's getting a little light, but it may be worth it if you right-side the notrump!

See you at the table!