We were vulnerable when I picked up this hand as dealer in last Saturday’s pairs game:

♠AQJ ♥Q95 ♦KJ865 ♣QTWe were playing 15-17 for a 1NT opener, so that is what I bid. Everyone passed, and LHO set the 6♥ on the table. Partner followed with this layout:

♠74 ♥J62 ♦AT973 ♣863In no trump contracts one normally counts winners. The heart lead meant that I had a heart trick to go with five likely diamond tricks and the ace of spades. Unfortunately, the opponents still had two heart tricks and an unknown number of club tricks. I cheerfully called for a low heart. RHO played the ten, and I took my heart trick.

Surely that meant that LHO had the two missing heart honors. I decided that if anyone had three diamonds, it was probably RHO. I led low to the board and, sure enough, LHO showed out. I realized that I could take five diamond tricks and still take two finesses in spades. That would give me nine tricks, which would surely be a top, if the finesse worked.

The question was: Where was the king of spades? I convinced myself that it was a better than 50-50 proposition that RHO had it. LHO had already shown seven points and a void, and RHO had only indicated a worthless queen. Besides, LHO led hearts. The opponents had eight spades and only seven hearts. RHO almost certainly had the majority of the spades.

I knew that it was a gamble, but I tried the finesse after three rounds of diamonds. It failed, and I went down two for a bottom. My partner was not happy with me.

I should have smelled a rat. From now on whenever I play a 1NT contract, I plan to ask myself: Why did the opponents not interfere? There are exactly three possibilities:

1. Both opponents have balanced hands.
2. The opponents do not have the tools to make a two-suited overcall.
3. The opponents do not understand the importance of interfering with a 1NT bid.

I should have realized that something was amiss even before the play to the first trick. Since we had ten diamonds, the opponents only had three. One of them had to have a void or singleton. Thus, it was not possible that they both had balanced hands.

While I could have indeed scored nine tricks if the spade finesse worked, I should have realized that +90 would probably be a very good score on this hand. The opponents had as much strength as we did, they had a double-fit in clubs and spades, one of them was very short in diamonds, and they had the top honors in hearts. I should have seen that they certainly could outbid us and make at least a partial.

As the cards lay, the opponents actually could make 5♣, 4♥, or 4♠!